Teddy Lupin and Rotteger's Bane
by RionahAnha
Summary: Sometimes, Teddy Lupin thought, there were so many shoes left for him to fill, and he doubted that he would ever get the chance to prove himself. But with the appearance of an old threat, Teddy finds himself thrust into the middle of an adventure not unlike the ones his godfather's told him about. His first year at Hogwarts might be more exciting than he had dared to hope.
1. Chapter 1: Happy Birthday, Harry Potter

_AN: This story was started very long ago. That being said, it does not strictly follow some of the canon laid down by Our Queen Rowling in recent months, and isn't that the beauty of fanfiction? I've been toying with the idea of writing a Teddy Lupin series for many years (since The Deathly Hallows was released, to be exact) and for some reason it's taken me this long to get it out. I think that with the announcement today of the upcoming novel publication of 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' it is the perfect time to strike back up with the HPFever. That being said, enjoy! I hope to see reviews and input from all of you!_

 **Chapter One: Happy Birthday, Harry Potter**

The sky was still and blue above his head. Teddy Lupin lay as motionless as he could on the soft grass of the Potter's back garden. Shards of grass pricked at the back of his neck and arms; his knees were still stinging from the tumble he'd taken earlier. It was hot, with no breeze to speak of. In the sky, the clouds hung motionless in their appointed spots. It was as Teddy had expected it would be today: another hot July day, another afternoon that languished on with nothing to do.

He'd been at the Potters since Wednesday, three days ago now, and he'd yet to see hide nor hair of his godfather. He had some dim recollection of being woken gently several nights ago, of a familiar hand resting on the top of his head, a shadowy voice whispering to sleep tight. He couldn't be sure if it had been a dream or not.

"He's awfully busy at work," Aunt Ginny had said to him when he'd asked. "They're having a rough time of it at the moment- I'm afraid he hasn't been able to take much time off." She herself was looking a little more ragged than Teddy was used to seeing her. He supposed having a husband that hardly made it home and four children to take care of did that to a person.

"He'll be home for his party though, won't he?" Teddy had asked anxiously, and Aunt Ginny offered him a tired, soft smile over the top of baby Lily's head.

"He knows better than to miss it," she assured him, and Teddy cupped his hands over his stomach to calm the thin tendril of worry twisting in there. He'd gotten Uncle Harry a present- nothing big, but it was nice, and he was already worried enough about giving it to him without having to worry about whether or not he'd be there at all.

That had been two days ago. Now it was Friday afternoon, and Uncle Harry's party was set for tomorrow at two o'clock, and while everyone in the family was going frantic to arrange it, Harry had yet to make an appearance.

Somewhere behind him, the back door to the Potter's creaked open and footsteps padded their way down the stone lined garden path. A minute later, Aunt Ginny's head appeared over his, her shadow casting a long dark smudge over him.

"It's about time for dinner, Ted," she said. Her red hair was caught up in a messy bun that rested at the nape of her neck; her eyes were lined with soft brown kohl, smudged beneath her lashes. She smiled. "I thought perhaps you'd be willing to set the table for me. Jamie's trying at the moment and I'm afraid it's not going so well."

Teddy scrambled to his feet, wincing a little as his knees pressed into the grass. "Have you heard from Uncle Harry?" He asked, and Aunt Ginny's smile thinned a bit.

"No, but Hermione did fire-call about an hour ago, and Ron's been home finally, so I'd assume that Harry's not far behind." She reached over, wiped at something on Teddy's cheek with her thumb. "You're filthy. What have you been up to out here, all day? Aren't you hot?"

"I'm fine." Teddy ducked out from under her hand and started for the house, where he could hear plates clattering through the open window. "I hope you haven't given Jamie any of the knives to set," he called over his shoulder, and Ginny responded with a roll of her eyes.

"What kind of mother do you think I am, Edward Lupin?"

Teddy didn't have much experience with mothers, outside of Ginny, his grandmothers and assorted sort-of aunts, and he wasn't much sure that any of them counted. He opened the door and went inside, where he found Jamie tottering atop a chair, steadily setting the kitchen table with all sorts of mismatched table ware: brown pewter plates, rose painted china bowls, a selection of plastic sippy cups and ceramic mugs. Under the table, three year old Albus was banging several spoons against the floor. Both boys cheered when Teddy stepped in.

"Teddy!" Jamie crowed. "Teddy, it's dinner time!" Anytime that involved food was Jamie's favorite time of the day. Teddy smiled, and knelt to take the spoons from Albus, who grinned wildly at him.

"Teddy," he said, "Play drums?"

"Not right now." Teddy scooped him up, plopped him down on a chair. There was something sticky clinging to his chin and cheeks. "You're a mess. You can't eat looking like this."

"Drums," Albus repeated determinedly. He reached for the spoons in Teddy's hands. "Drums, Teddy!"

Ginny had come in behind them and was at the stove, lazily whirling her wand over the sauce pan bubbling on the range. Teddy hoped vaguely that it was curry. "You boys need to get washed up," she said absently. "Ted, make sure Al changes his shirt, won't you? And check in on Lily for me, please?"

It took him a few minutes, but Teddy got the boys rounded together upstairs, where they made a mess of the bathroom fighting over first the soap, then the faucet handles. It took so long that Teddy forwent changing Albus' shirt and sent the boys back downstairs while he ducked into Ginny and Harry's room to check on Lily, who was sleeping soundly in the middle of their big bed, her thumb stuck in her mouth and her soft red curls rising like gentle wing tips over her ears. When he was satisfied that she was asleep and safe, he washed quickly, throwing towels down over the puddles that Jamie and Al had left, and hurried downstairs for supper.

It was curry, as Teddy had hoped it was, and although it was one of Ginny's best meals, the dinner hour was considerably dampened by Harry's lack of appearance. Even Ginny seemed to droop as the sun set and the hours drew on; after dinner, she did the dishes quietly while Teddy played Gobstones with the boys in the living room, coming in only to tell them to get ready for bed. "What's wrong with your knee, Ted?" She asked then, and Teddy glanced down, where his knees were still red beneath his shorts.

"I fell from my broom," he told her sheepishly. "I forgot to tell you."

"Do they hurt much?" Albus was clinging to her leg, his hands pawing at her sweater. She bent to pick him up. "Shower and then I'll look at them, Ted."

Teddy showered, being careful to wash the cuts in his knees carefully, and then took a few minutes to arrange his hair in the bathroom mirror. When he was content with it – bright blue and sticking up over his forehead in shocks- he went up to his attic bedroom, passing by the boys' room, where Albus and James were already fast asleep, the two of them nestled side by side in James's bed, Al's blankets and pillows scattered over the floor.

He'd had Harry's present tucked under his pillow for the last three days, where he knew James wouldn't get at it and where he could feel it pressing into his ear when he slept. He took it out now, ran his thumb delicately over the corded lip of it. He wasn't sure if Harry would like it or not- but it was all he could think of, and besides, Harry had never not liked any of his presents before.

So engrossed was he in his own musings that he didn't hear anyone approaching until the door creaked open. Teddy looked up in surprise and shouted. "You're home!"

Uncle Harry stood sheepishly in the doorway, a tired smile framing his face. He was still dressed in his Auror robes, and his hair lay flat against his head, as if it were too tired to do its usual wild dance atop his head. He rapped on the doorframe. "Permission to enter, Captain?"

Teddy stuffed the present hastily back under his pillow and scrambled across his bed, his feet thumping the ground. "Permission granted," he all but shouted, and Harry winced, raising a finger to his lips as he entered.

"Are you trying to wake the whole house, Ted?" He asked with a smile, and folded him into a tight hug. "Have you grown again? You know what I said about that."

Teddy hugged him back, then pushed away. "Do you have to go back to work?" He asked, and Harry's face tightened, but only for the barest of seconds.

"Not for several days," he answered. "According to Kingsley, I've been severely overworked. I've been given orders to not set foot in the office until Wednesday morning, or risk the wrath of the Minister himself."

"And Aunt Ginny," Teddy added. Uncle Harry chuckled, ruffled his hair.

"And Aunt Ginny," he echoed. He sat on the edge of the bed and patted the blanket beside him. "Ginny tells me you fell from your broom?"

"I wasn't high," Teddy defended quickly. He sat beside his godfather and swung his legs up, brandishing his scraped knees. "It hardly hurts."

Harry studied them quickly, tapped them with his wand. Teddy watched as the skin paled to a slight pink and the stinging in them eased. Harry smiled at him. "Better?"

Behind his glasses, Harry's green eyes were lined with gray shadows. He looked, Teddy thought, more tired than he had seen him since Lily was born, eight months ago. "Aunt Ginny made curry," he said, and Harry nodded.

"I know," He said. "I thought I'd have some after I said good night to you."

"Aunt Ginny says you've been busy at work."

"She's right." Uncle Harry removed his glasses, rubbed at one eye, then the other, with the tip of his fingers. "Word of advice, Ted: don't bother growing up. It isn't worth it."

Harry was going to be twenty eight years old tomorrow; Hogwarts was looming just around the corner, only a month away. All Teddy could think of was growing up. His fingers tightened on the edge of his quilt. "You're still going to take me to Diagon Alley, aren't you?" He asked anxiously. Harry sighed.

"Of course I am," he said. "I wouldn't miss it for the world, Teddy." He was quiet a minute. "I am sorry, Ted, that I haven't been here this week. You know I look forward to your visits, don't you?"

He'd never doubt his godfather, Teddy thought. "I know." He straightened. "It's okay," he told him. "I know you've been busy."

Harry smiled wryly. "What did I just say about growing up?" He sighed and slipped his glasses back on, ran a hand through his hair. "I think it's about time for lights out. Your aunt has kept supper waiting on me long enough."

She'd kept dinner waiting last night too, and Wednesday evening as well, Teddy thought, but he didn't say that. He scuttled backwards on the bed and slithered under the blankets, laying back on his pillow. Uncle Harry's present dug into the back of his head. "You'll be here for breakfast?" He asked, and Uncle Harry smiled, bent to press a kiss to the top of his head.

"Of course," he said. "Good night, Teddy."

He turned the light off, and in the sudden drowsing darkness, Teddy heard his godfather's retreating steps, nearly silent on the attic floor, and his soft breathing. Teddy snaked his hand under his pillow, curled his finger's around the present. "Good night, Uncle Harry," he called softly after him, and Harry slid the attic door shut with a creak.

xxxx

Harry was indeed there for breakfast the next morning, swamped with his children: Lily drooling into his shirt collar and Albus perched on one knee. James had drawn his chair so close to his father's that their elbows bumped when they moved. Harry grinned at Teddy when he stumbled into the kitchen. "You hungry?" He asked, then added sarcastically: "I've got a free knee, if you want a seat." Teddy shook his head and sat across from him. Aunt Ginny was bent over the open oven door, dressed casually in a pair of cut off jean shorts and her old Holyhead Harpies practice jersey.

"We've got to eat quickly," she told them. "There's a lot to be done today." She waved her wand, and a platter of pancakes floated over to the table. Albus shouted happily and banged his fork against the lip of the table.

"P'ncakes!" He yelled. "Daddy, p'ncakes."

"Al, please." Uncle Harry reached around his son for his cup of coffee. "Gin, is there any cream?"

A pitcher of cream dashed out of the refrigerator and plopped down next to the pancakes. Uncle Harry offered his wife a grateful smile; she returned it as she took the seat next to Teddy, her wand tucked into her bun. "Eat up," she said cheerily. "Jamie, take your hands from your mouth, please."

The pancakes were loaded with strawberries and there was bacon and oatmeal besides. The meal was animated compared to the previous night's sullen supper: Al and James clamored for their father's attention the entire time, which Harry happily gave, in between sips of coffee and snippets of conversation with his wife and godson. He didn't seem to get much breakfast eaten at all, but Teddy got the distinct impression that he didn't seem to mind.

Aunt Ginny was right when she said that there was a lot to be done. They'd hardly finished eating when the Floo in the parlor came to life and Nana Weasley came spilling out, followed by a slew of cousins and uncles and aunts. The house was alive immediately, loud with birthday greetings and screaming children and doors opening and closing. The dogs, who had been sleeping so quietly in the pantry, were suddenly barking and jumping. Aunt Ginny, greeting her father with a hug, called over her shoulder: "Teddy- get them in the shed! Now!"

Teddy slipped off his chair and went after the dogs. He found the shepherd, Alecto, in the parlor, sniffing at the ashy remains of used Floo powder, and Bronte, the bull dog, licking at Uncle Ron's heels in the foyer. Ron mussed his hair as Teddy struggled to drag the slobbering dog away. "Heya, Teddy," he said. Teddy grinned back.

By some stroke of luck, he managed to manhandle both dogs outside and into their pen at the back of the garden, next to the broom shed. When he emerged, it was to find that Uncle Harry and Grandad were already outside, lazily levitating tables from the barn to the center of the garden. Uncle Harry whistled at him. "Nice pajamas, Ted," he said. Ted looked down and blushed. "Why don't you go get dressed and see what you can do to help Ginny?" He suggested, and Teddy nodded and darted by, stopping only to throw a greeting out towards Arthur.

When Teddy came back downstairs from getting dressed, Harry's present tucked into the back pocket of his jeans, more people had arrived. Bill Weasley could be glimpsed through the hallway windows, stringing hanging lanterns from tree top to tree top and Teddy could hear the unmistakable high wail of Fleur in the kitchen. In the playroom, Albus and James had been joined by Rosie Weasley, her red hair a bright bush of color as she commanded the others in her game.

"Hullo, Teddy."

Teddy started. Victoire, fair haired and tall, was standing patiently behind him, dressed primly in a soft blue sundress and white lace flats. Her sister, eight year old Dominique, who was more Weasley than Delacour, unlike her brother and sister, was behind her, pulling at the ribbon on her yellow dress. Teddy regarded the two girls warily.

"Hullo."

"Is that what you're wearing to the party?" Victoire asked with a sniff. Teddy scowled.

"So?"

"So it's a party. It's Uncle Harry's party, and Maman says there's going to be dozens of important people here, so you've got to look presentable."

Teddy thought that his jean shorts and Harpies jersey was just fine. "I am."

Victoire rolled her eyes. "The Harpies aren't even Uncle Harry's favorite team," she pointed out. Teddy bristled.

"Shut up-"

"Teddy." Aunt Ginny was in the doorway, a towel slung over one shoulder and Lily drooling on the other. She frowned at him. "Come on. I could use your help in here."

Teddy didn't move. "I don't want to cook," he said, and Ginny sighed.

"As if I would put you in charge of that," she said. "Come on, Ted. There's a lot to be done."

Teddy was put in charge of squeezing lemons for lemonade and carrying buckets of bottled soda outside to the tables under the trees. He was sweating just a few minutes into it. "Can't you just magic it?" He asked, and Aunt Ginny, who was threading shish-ka-bobs with one hand and feeding Lily with the other, offered him an exasperated look.

"With what hand, Ted?" She asked, and Teddy opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment the Floor roared to life and Charlie Weasley spilled out, Molly Weasley clinging to one leg and Lucy Weasley on the other, Percy and Audrey following, their arms loaded with packages. Teddy took advantage of the sudden commotion to snag a bottled butterbeer and slip outside, where the men were arranging chairs around the table and Bill was sharing a cigar with Uncle Harry, who was laughing. Teddy stopped at his elbow.

"Charlie's here," he said. Bill winked at him.

"See any dragons?" He asked, and Teddy shook his head, popped the cap off of his butterbeer. Victoire and Dominique were at the dog pen, sticking their fingers through the wire fence to pet the animals. The hem of Dominque's dress was splattered with mud.

As the morning wore on, more family arrived. George Weasley arrived a little before noon with his wife and children, and Lee Jordan and his family. Before long, the stream of visitors became friends rather than family, and by two o'clock, both the back garden and the house were packed. Men gathered in clumps, drinking beer from pewter mugs, while the women sipped wine from stemmed glasses and children tumbled over the lawn. The air was heady with the scent of grilled meats and vegetables; the tables under the trees at the edge of the yard were loaded with platters and bowls. One table, a very small one, stood by itself under the birch copse. It was covered with a red table cloth – red and gold for Gryffindor, Teddy guessed- and on it rested a few wrapped presents and a basket overflowing with cards. Teddy stood close by and studied the presents, wrapped ornately in gilt edged paper and tied with sparkling ribbons and felt the tip of Harry's present dig into his thigh.

"What do you think's in them?"

Teddy jumped at the sudden intrusion. Uncle Harry smirked at him. He looked much more rested than he had last night and he had a scent of tobacco about him. Teddy sniffed. "You've been smoking."

Harry shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Its tradition, you know, to give a man a cigar on his birthday."

"I didn't get one for my birthday."

Harry laughed. "You're eleven years old, Ted. You've got time." He nudged Teddy's shoulder. "So, what do you think? Any good?"

Teddy glanced over his shoulder, at the spread of guests across the lawn. Uncle Ron had the broom shed open and was passing toy brooms around to the little cousins. There was a trickle of adults heading towards the back field, the children nipping on their heels. Harry chuckled. "Neville and I had a bet," he told Teddy, "On how long it would take Ron to start a match."

"Who won?" Teddy asked, and Uncle Harry answered:

"Not me." He mussed Teddy's hair. "You want to join?"

They spent a good part of the afternoon out above the field, whizzing happily through the air above the younger children, who hovered near the ground on their toy brooms. Teddy, who'd been gifted a real broom for his eleventh birthday, was happy to skim the air above their heads, his sneakers inches away from their heads. Above him, the adults had a real game going: Uncle George and Lee Jordan were menaces as they pelted across the sky, and Harry was, at the best of times, a blur as he shot across the field, weaving in and out among the other fliers. For a few minutes, Aunt Ginny kicked off her heels and joined her husband and brothers in the air, outstripping them all on her old Nimbus 2500, eliciting cheers from both the party goers on the ground and in the air. Teddy kicked his heels lazily together and watched as she and Harry raced from one end of the field to the other, bent low over their handles, Ginny's hair a billowing cape of red behind her. When they pulled up at the end of the field, both breathless and beaming, Harry hooked an arm around his wife's neck and kissed her hard on the cheek. Everyone laughed.

It wasn't until the sun had begun to set that the riders straggled in from the field, their brooms hitched over their shoulders and their clothes rumpled and wind torn. Grandad was setting each lantern aflame with the flick of his wand; before the rose bushes, staged against the house, toddlers and babies lay sleeping on blankets. It wasn't until Teddy spotted Nana Weasley, sitting in a rocking chair with baby Louis drowsing in her arms, did Teddy realize that one guest had yet to arrive. He threw his broom into the shed, ignoring Ron's admonition to be careful with it, and tore across the lawn to the house.

The kitchen was empty but a disaster: pans were stacked in the sink and flour and other debris was scattered over the flagged stone floor. Beyond the hallway, the parlor lights were on dimly. There were coats and blankets and bags heaped over every available inch of furniture, but the hearth was cold, the Floo powder scattered over it grey and dusty. Teddy stuck his head in it, his heart a heavy patter in his chest, then left in search of his godfather.

He found him outside in a cluster of men at the edge of the garden. Teddy counted heads as he approached: Neville Longbottom, Uncle Ron and George, Seamus Finnegan and several other Aurors. In the midst of them, Kingsley Shacklebolt was smoking a cigar and talking in a hushed voice. The conversation lacked the vitality of earlier chats; Teddy heard the Minister say, quietly, "-the woods of Belarus-" before someone noticed him standing there and cleared his throat. All eyes turned to Teddy, Harry, smoking yet another cigar, coughed and asked, "All right, Teddy?"

Teddy was unsteady with all the eyes on him. "Could I- could I talk to you?" He asked Harry, and Harry nodded to the others as he stepped out of the circle. He put his hand on Teddy's shoulder and drew him away from the cluster of men, which had closed again just as quickly. His face looked, Teddy thought, flat and serious in the dying sunlight.

"What's wrong?" He asked, before he could stop himself, and Harry cocked an eye brow at him.

"You're the one who came to get me," he pointed out. He put his cigar out with the tip of his wand and stuck it into his breast pocket. "What's the matter, Ted?"

Teddy looked around wildly- one more time, just in case- and said, "Grams never came. I just noticed." Harry stiffened suddenly, his fingers tight on Teddy's shoulder. Teddy's heart pounded theatrically in his chest. "What? What is it? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Harry said, "Except that I have a terrible memory." He sighed. "I'm sorry, Ted. Your grandmother Floo called this morning to say that she wouldn't be able to make it. I'm afraid she's feeling poorly. I meant to tell you when you woke up this morning, but with all of this hullabaloo, I forgot." He leaned down, so his eyes were in line with Teddy's. "I am sorry. I didn't mean for you to worry."

Teddy didn't say anything for a long moment. His heart was still a rapid patter in his chest, and now there was the terrible, rising sensation that he was going to puke to suddenly contend with. "Maybe I should go home," he said at last, "If she's sick. To make sure she's okay."

"She's fine," Uncle Harry assured him. "She told me she'd gone to St. Mungo's yesterday and it's nothing more than a summer cold. She's got Nancy Wainwright staying with her."

 _Grams shouldn't need someone to stay with her_ , Teddy thought angrily. _That's my job._ "I want to go home," he told Uncle Harry, who sighed.

"She asked me if I would keep you here specifically, Ted," he said. "For a few days, until she's better. She doesn't want you catching anything, with school so close in coming."

Teddy felt his stomach curdle. "I won't catch anything," he said desperately, and Harry smiled softly.

"I don't think you going home right now is a good idea," he said, "But I'll be around tomorrow. We can visit then."

"I shouldn't have to visit my own home," Teddy snapped indignantly. He was a little surprised at how rude it came out. Apparently so was Uncle Harry, because his eyebrows arched up into his hair line.

"I agree with you, one hundred percent," he said. "Believe me, the last thing I'd like to do is keep you from where you want to be, but I really do think we should honor your grandmother's wishes on this matter, Ted."

Teddy felt suddenly awful. "I do want to be here, Uncle Harry," he said. He ashamed that there was a tremor in his voice. "I just – I'm worried about her."

Uncle Harry regarded him gently. "I know you are," he said, "But I can assure you, she's fine. We'll see her tomorrow all right? Bring her some leftover birthday cake. Okay?"

"Okay." Teddy nodded. Harry smiled at him and reached over to pat his cheek.

"Atta boy, Ted," he said. He straightened. "Speaking of cake, I think it's about that time." Teddy followed his gaze to the copse of birch trees across the yard, where Aunt Ginny was lighting the candles atop a fabulous tiered cake with her wand. She caught sight of Harry across the yard and waved him over impatiently. Harry laughed. "I suppose we ought to get over there."

He started across the yard and Teddy followed close behind him. The guests were pressing in thick and tight around the little table with the cake, but they parted for Harry to come through and then for Teddy. When they reached the table, they were joined by Hermione, Rosie in her arms, and she led the whole party in a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday," complete with clinking glasses and bawdy shouts from the Weasley brothers, who had had, Teddy thought, perhaps more to drink than they should have. The song gave way to cheers, and Harry tried to blow out the candles rather unsuccessfully. In the end, he extinguished the flames with the help of his wand and Jamie, and Nana Weasley and Hermione set about cutting and offering plates to everyone. There was ice cream too, seven different kinds, and lemonade and cookies. Then everyone settled down in the grass and the chairs to watch the Filibusters display, set off by George and Charlie in the lower field.

Teddy found a spot to sit, nestled in between Albus and Lily on a blanket by the rosebushes. Lily was fast asleep, her bare feet twitching in the evening breeze. Ginny stopped by to drop a hearing charm on her before hurrying off to find a spot with her husband and Jamie, who was perched atop Harry's shoulders, his fingers threaded through his father's thick black hair. Teddy remembered what it had been like to sit like that, long ago, on the top of the world.

The fireworks were spectacular, but Teddy found that by the end of it, he was exhausted. The grass beneath his back was soft and springy; the cool night air a welcome reprieve from the heat of the last few days. Albus was asleep on his arm already, and Teddy, so full of cake and lemonade that he thought he might burst, felt himself sinking into a drowsy stupor even as the last burning orange spark faded from the sky and the guests began to rouse themselves, to stretch and call out thank-you's and good-night's.

When he woke again it was completely dark. Overhead, the moon was a sliver of silver thumbnail amongst a soft pelt of stars. The yard was dim, lit only by the lanterns strung in the trees and squares of light thrown from the windows of the house. Teddy wasn't surprised to find that most of the guests were gone; all that remained were the family and Neville and Shacklebolt. The adults were sitting nearby on lawn chairs. Teddy was one person in a heap of sleeping children. He lay still and listened.

"We've tracked them to Belarus," Ron was saying in a low voice. He was smoking again, the tip of his cigar luminescent against his pale face. He had one arm around Hermione, who was nursing Hugo. "But they're outside of our jurisdiction, and the Wizengamot doesn't seem too keen on pushing for an international warrant."

"I suppose they don't see him as a threat," Bill drawled slowly. "They think they're too far away to do any damage to us here, and they want you to just let sleeping dogs lie, don't they?"

Ron snorted. "If only we were dealing with dogs here, I might be inclined to agree with them."

"For all you know, they may be right," Ginny put in. She was resting comfortably against Harry, her heels discarded in the grass beneath her chair and her bare feet curled underneath her. "What have they got here? They've no leader, no organization. With the Death Eaters all but disbanded, they've got no avenue of support. What can they hope to get out of us here?"

"I wish I knew," Harry said tightly. "And I wish I knew why now. I still can't get it out of my head, that house-"

Beside him, Lily began to wail. Teddy, on instinct, scurried to hush her. The adults turned towards the sound; Ginny got gracefully up from her seat and crossed the lawn to crouch beside Teddy. "I've got her, Ted," she said gently. She took Lily from Teddy's arm, pressing her against her chest. "She's probably cold. I think it's time we moved inside."

Teddy didn't want to. He knew it was wrong, because Uncle Harry and Ron's jobs were confidential and dangerous and not actually meant for his ears, but Harry had been gone for days and his grandmother was sick and he couldn't shake the feeling that something awful was happening, something his eyes and ears were closed to. "I'd like to stay out here," he told Aunt Ginny, and Uncle Harry, who had gotten up too, said firmly:

"I think it's time for bed, Teddy. It's late."

Teddy sighed but got up. Around him, children were being roused, lifted into their father's arms and carried inside. Aunt Ginny took Lily in and Uncle Harry had both of his sons in each arm. He nodded for Teddy to follow him in and he did, hurrying to hold the door open for him.

Upstairs, Teddy brushed his teeth and washed his face. He was surprised to see that it was well after eleven. He was getting changed when he realized that his present for Uncle Harry was still in his back pocket. He carried it to his room, where Bronte was stretched out over his bed. He pushed the bull dog aside and clambered in. It was only a few minutes before Uncle Harry rapped on the door.

"You all right up here?" He asked, sticking his head in. Teddy could still hear people talking downstairs, cabinets opening and closing. He assumed that they meant for the party to continue on for some time.

"Teddy?" Uncle Harry asked, and Teddy started.

"Is there trouble at work?" He asked, and Harry stepped into the room, his face stony.

"You heard us talking, then?"

"Just for a minute." Teddy looked down at his hands, at the present cupped there. "I didn't mean to."

"You never do." There was a slight edge in Harry's voice, and Teddy flushed. He kept his head down as Harry drew up alongside the bed. "It's nothing for you to worry about. You know what my job entails. Leave it to me to fret about it, all right?"

He wouldn't, but he didn't say that. Instead, Teddy held out the present, sweating in his hand. "I forgot to give this to you earlier," he said softly, and Harry took it gently as he sat on the edge of the bed. He offered Teddy a grin.

"I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me," he said lightly, and Teddy grinned back.

"Never." He held his breath as Harry's finger's worked at the newspaper Teddy had wrapped it in. "I'm not so good at wrapping."

"It's a great job, Teddy." The last of the paper fell away and Teddy breathed explosively. Harry studied the silver pocket watch, cupping it delicately in the palm of his hand. Teddy felt dizzy.

"I know you've already got one," he said softly, "But I thought-"

He wasn't sure what he had thought, to be honest. He'd spent most of the summer worrying about what to give Harry today, especially after Harry's more than generous gift of Teddy's Firebolt last April. He didn't think that he could ever out-do that present, and not that he wanted to, but he'd like to think that Harry had something special, from him. He found his voice again.

"I know you've already got one," he said again. Uncle Harry turned the watch over in his hand, studied the back of it. Teddy knew the scene by heart: a wolf, lurking beneath a canopy of trees, a stream burbling over rocks at his feet. "But I thought maybe you'd like to have one from me," he finished, and Harry looked over at him, his eyes serious.

"It's wonderful, Teddy," he said gently. "I love it."

Teddy grinned. Bolstered a little, he blurted out: "It was my grandfather's. He's got dozens of them. Grams said I could pick one to give to you, when I asked her. I hope its okay that it's not brand new."

"I rather prefer when presents are passed on, rather than bought," Uncle Harry assured him, and Teddy went on:

"I thought the wolf was perfect because – well, you know, because of my dad." He leaned over and ran a finger over the raised imprint of the wolf, his sleek haunches and pointed nose. "Grams says you thought a lot of him."

"I thought the world of your father, Teddy." Uncle Harry reached around Teddy and drew him in for a quick hug. His eyes were shining. "And you, for that matter. And this present. It's the best I've gotten all day, I think."

Teddy endured the hug for a second longer, then pulled away. "I put something inside of it," he said. Harry cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Hopefully not something that bites," he joked, and Teddy rolled his eyes.

"Just open it, Uncle Harry." He waited while Harry slipped the clasp open. Inside, the silver hands ticked smoothly over the ivory face of the clock; on the other side, pressed into the lid, the picture that Teddy had cut out of his memory book smiled up at them. Harry studied it for a moment, a smile twisting his lips.

"Do you remember this day, Teddy?"

"Of course I do." Harry had taken Teddy to the zoo that day – the Muggle zoo, in London. Teddy had been four. They'd had a great time looking at the animals and the exhibits. They'd fed the ostriches and Teddy had been able to pet a giraffe. They'd had ice cream at a stand in the middle of the Safari, where a passerby had offered to take their picture. In it, Harry looked decidedly different than he did normally- he was wearing regular blue jeans and a t-shirt and jacket and smiling at the camera with Teddy in his arms. Teddy had chocolate ice cream smeared over his face and wisps of blue hair peeked out from underneath his ball cap. The picture, taken with Uncle Harry's Muggle Kodak, didn't move, but sometimes, Harry had said, something didn't have to be magical to be special.

"Thank you for this, Teddy." Harry shut the watch and held it in his hands a moment longer. Then he stood and slipped it into the pocket of his jeans. He smiled down at Teddy. "Perhaps it's time to retire my old watch."

"Grandad gave that to you, though."

"I know. But I always sort of thought that I'd like to save it- to be able to pass it down to someone else." He bent suddenly and planted a kiss on the top of Teddy's head. "You need to sleep, Ted. It's late."

Teddy turned and crawled underneath the blanket. At the end of his bed, Bronte grunted in his sleep. "We are going to see Grams tomorrow, right?"

"I did promise, didn't I?" Harry waved his wand and the lamp clicked off. Yellow light fell in through the open door; downstairs, Uncle Charlie was laughing. Harry offered him a wry smile, one that Teddy could just make out in the wan moonlight. "I'll get him quiet enough so you can sleep, don't worry."

"I'm not worried." Already the room was foggy and slow. Teddy yawned and rolled over, buried his face in his pillow. "Goodnight, Uncle Harry."

"Good night, Teddy."

The door clicked shut. Harry's footsteps retreated down the attic stairs, the wood creaking. Teddy dug his toes into Bronte's side and murmured, though no one could hear him: "Happy Birthday, Uncle Harry."


	2. Chapter 2: Subpar

_AN: Thank you all for your reviews on the first chapter! I love to see people getting interested in the story; here's hoping I can hold your attention! I'm trying to set myself on a schedule to update every ten days or so, so you guys won't have to wait too long between installments. Let me know what you think!_

 **Chapter Two: Subpar**

Charlie Weasley was still there the next morning. When Teddy came down for breakfast, he found Uncle Harry and him sitting at the table in the kitchen, laughing uproariously over something. Harry's glasses were pushed up onto the top of his head, and both men were red faced and gasping for breath. Aunt Ginny and the boys were nowhere to be seen. Teddy stood in the doorway until Harry noticed him and beckoned him to the table, coughing into his hand.

"Why were you standing there?" He asked finally. Teddy slid onto his chair and scrambled to his knees.

"I didn't want to interrupt."

"Don't be ridiculous, Teddy. Are you hungry? Charlie's been kind enough to make us breakfast."

They both had bowls of cold cereal and milk on the table in front of them. Teddy cocked an eyebrow. "It doesn't look like he tried very hard," he said, and Harry burst into laughter again, while Charlie gave an affronted shout.

Uncle Harry stood, still laughing. "Cereal okay, Teddy?"

"I can get it-"

"Sit, sit. It's not every day I get to get to make breakfast for you." He moved around the table to the cabinets. "Do you want toast or anything?"

"No." Teddy drummed his fingers on the table. "Where's Aunt Ginny?"

"I thought I'd let her sleep in. I've already sent the boys to the Burrow for the day." Harry came up behind Teddy and placed a bowl and the box of cereal in front of him. "I thought we'd go to your grandmother's as soon as I can manage to shake this one." He jerked his head towards Charlie, who responded with a playful sneer.

Teddy shook the cereal into the bowl, then poured the milk. Uncle Harry sat back at the table and proceeded to drink his coffee. "I was just showing Charlie the watch you gave me," he told Teddy. Charlie nodded at him and said, around a mouthful of cereal:

"It's handsome, Ted. Where'd your grandfather get it?"

"I don't know." Teddy stabbed at his cereal with his spoon. "Grams said he liked to collect them. He's got a lot. He even kept the ones my mother broke."

"And I'm sure that was a lot of them." Charlie grinned, but his brown eyes were melancholy. Teddy remembered Harry telling him once that he and his mother had gone to school together. They'd flown against each other on the Quidditch Pitch. "Harry says you're going to Diagon Alley tomorrow."

"I am?" Teddy bolted upright, jostling the table. Milk sloshed over the side of his bowl. "You didn't tell me that!" He pointed his spoon at Uncle Harry, who smirked back at him over the rim of his mug.

"I thought you'd like a surprise," he said. "And anyways – we've got to go sooner than later. School starts in a month. I'd rather go before all the last minute shoppers decide to."

Teddy knew what Uncle Harry was trying to avoid. Every time they went anywhere, they were held up by dozens of witches and wizards, by fans who wanted to shake his hand and thank him for his sacrifices and show their appreciation to him for all he'd done. Uncle Harry was gracious to each of them, taking their hands and smiling and offering a few kind words here and there, but Teddy was the one who saw him afterwards, with his slumping shoulders and weary sighs. "Just once," Teddy had heard him say to Ron, "Just once I'd like to go grocery shopping without the world scrutinizing the stockings I buy."

"Teddy?"

Teddy blinked. Uncle Charlie was looking at him, a smirk on his dark face. Of all of the Weasleys, Charlie was the only one who looked like he ever saw the sun at all. "What?"

"I was asking if you were going to try out for the Quidditch team."

"Oh." Teddy looked down at his cereal. "I don't know. Uncle Harry said I can't bring my Firebolt."

"I didn't say you couldn't, the school did," Uncle Harry pointed out. "It's in the rules, Teddy – the rules that I don't make."

"You had your broom," Teddy argued, and Harry sighed. He stood abruptly and brought his bowl and mug to the sink.

"If you can convince McGonagall to allow it, I won't be opposed," he said to Teddy. "But I'm not going to go advocating that she bend the rules for one student, Teddy." He frowned. "You can fly just as well on the school brooms."

"Just as well, yeah." Teddy scowled at his godfather. "Just as well- but a hundred times slower."

"A good Quidditch player doesn't need the fastest broom," Charlie said firmly. "Just the most dedication. I flew Seeker for four years, and I never had a Firebolt to play on."

Teddy flushed. Once upon a time, he'd been told, before the War had left them heroes and famous, the Weasleys had been incredibly poor. He couldn't imagine it.

"We'll see," he said peevishly, at last, and Uncle Harry sighed.

"Go get dressed, Teddy," he said. "Your grandmother's waiting on us, I imagine."

Teddy shoveled the last spoonful of cereal into his mouth and went back upstairs, his stockinged feet slipping on the wooden stairs of the attic stairwell. Once, after Harry and Ginny had given him the room five years ago, he'd slipped and fallen all the way to the bottom and broke his collarbone. Ginny had been paranoid about them ever since.

In his room, Bronte lay sleeping in the same spot that he had been last night, drooling over the blue and green patchwork quilt Nana Weasley had made for him. Teddy stopped to pet the dog, roughly, atop the head as he went by. "Up and at 'em, Bron!"

Bronte snorted but remained asleep. Teddy slithered out of his pajamas and went in search of clothes. From the pile at the foot of his bed he found a pair of jeans and from the bottom of his wardrobe he found a wrinkled orange Cannons jersey. He tied on his trainers and took a minute to adjust himself in the mirror, finally settling on his almost natural look: his heart shaped face, reminiscent of his mother, Grams always said, and his own long, thin nose and chipped chin, inherited from his father. The high cheekbones and straight eyebrows were, he was told, unfortunately a Black family gene. He fixed his eyes so they were bright green, like Uncle Harry's, gave his tousled turquoise hair a halfhearted run through with his comb, and went back downstairs. Bronte heaved himself off of the bed and padded along behind him.

Charlie had moved from the kitchen table to the kitchen floor, where he had Lily trapped between his knees. She was standing, wobbling with her hands in his, gurgling. She was still in her pajamas and her red curls were flattened on one side of her head and springy on the other. She squealed and stuck out her tongue when she saw Teddy. He dropped a kiss on her head.

"Hullo, Lils," he said. Aunt Ginny was standing behind the island, a cup of tea steaming in her hands. She smiled blearily at him.

"You ought to wear that shirt around Ron and not me," she said lightly. "You know how I feel about subpar Quidditch teams, Teddy."

"Oh-ho, is that my sister, the retired professional Quidditch player talking?" Charlie joshed. "Gosh, Gin, why don't you stoop on over here with us peasants and tell us what you really think?"

Ginny smirked at him. "That's retired Professional Quidditch player and two time National Cup champion to you, Charles." She hefted a stoneware dish off of the counter and held it out to Teddy. "I've wrapped some cake and leftovers for your gradmum, Teddy. Send her my regards, all right?"

"I will," Teddy scrambled to his knees and reached around the island to take the dish from Ginny. "Will the boys be home later?"

"A little after lunch, I suspect." Ginny took a sip of her tea, grimacing, and waved a hand towards the kitchen door. "Go on. Harry's waiting for you by the Floo."

Teddy threw a quick good-bye to Charlie, offered Lily one more quick kiss, and hurried out into the parlor, where he found Harry inspecting himself in the mirror over the fireplace. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a casual button down and trainers. He had his wand stuck behind his ear. He turned to offer Teddy a smirk as he entered. "I suppose that shirt was what I heard Ginny complaining about."

Teddy grinned back. "You know how she feels about subpar Quidditch teams," he replied, and Harry laughed. He reached out and plucked the heavy stoneware pan, loaded with leftovers, from Teddy's arms.

"Why don't you let me carry this," he said, "And you throw the Floo powder, all right?"

Harry had always let Teddy throw the Floo powder when he was little. Now that he was eleven, he supposed it shouldn't feel quite as much like a treat as it had before. Nevertheless, he acquiesced, taking a handful of the warm grey powder from the pewter vase beside the hearth and holding it over the grate. He waited till Harry had a hand fixed on his shoulder to dump the handful, and as the emerald green flames roared into existence, they shouted together:

"Tonks' Residence!"

The flames snatched at them, and Teddy found himself being pinched and whirled, faster and faster, until he was flung very suddenly out of the screaming spiral of the Floo Network into the relative calm of his own parlor. He stumbled, teeth chattering, and would have fallen had Harry's hand, anchored to his shoulder, not pulled him upright. "Easy, Ted," he said, and Teddy shook his head, marveling as he always did at his godfather's seamless acceptance of magical travel. Harry waited a second longer, then released him. "Any idea where your grandmother could be?"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a head popped around the corner of the kitchen doorway. It was Nancy Wainwright, one of his grandmother's good friends, and she beamed at them. "Teddy!" She cried, then, in a little shriller of a voice, "Mr. Potter! How good to see you!"

"Hullo, Nancy," Harry said politely. "How are you?" He stepped from the hearth to the carpet, being careful to knock any ash off of his feet before stepping onto the Persian rug laid out over the parlor's hardwood floors. "How is Andy? Any better?"

"Not much, I'm afraid." Nancy bustled forward to take the dish from Harry, smiling widely all the while. She was, as most of Andromeda Tonks' friends were, smitten with the "dashing young hero." Teddy thought it ridiculous; Harry was nowhere near dashing, and he got tired of all of the old ladies crooning over the pictures of Harry and Teddy that Andromeda had posted all over the house. He ducked around Nancy and made for the kitchen, rolling his eyes at Nancy's exclamations over Harry's generosity at bringing leftovers from the party.

In the kitchen, Andromeda Tonks was sitting at the long oaken table, sipping at a cup of tea. She was still in her dressing gown, her hair piled up off of her head in a bundle of greying curls. She put down her cup and held out her arms to Teddy. "Nancy said she'd thought she'd heard the Floo."

Teddy went to her and allowed her to gather him into a hug that was altogether too tight for any real comfort. "Hullo, Grams," he said into her shoulder. "Are you any better?"

"A smidgeon, I think." She let go of him, held him back at arm's length, and smiled at him. Teddy was quick to note the lines in the corners of her mouth and the pallid cast to her skin. "Sit, Teddy, sit! How was the party? I'm so sorry I missed it- I was looking forward to catching up with everyone. How is Nana?"

"She's fine." Teddy clambered onto the seat next to her. For as long as he could remember, Tonks had always referred to Mrs. Weasley as "Nana" around him. When he was very young, he hadn't thought twice of it; he'd thought that the Weasleys were his actual family, and Harry and Ginny his aunt and uncle, until he was nearly five years old. When he'd been told the truth, he was a little afraid that Andromeda wouldn't like him calling another woman his grandmother, but when he'd mentioned it to her, she'd laughed. "You're afraid I'll be upset about someone else loving you nearly as much I do?" She'd asked him, rifling her fingers through his hair. "You deserve all the love in the world, Teddy, and then some. You won't ever find me slighted over that."

"And the new baby? Ron's little boy?"

"Hugo was there," Teddy told her. In the parlor, Nancy was laughing loudly over something or other. Everything Uncle Harry said to her was always so very funny. "He's not so little, Grams. He's just a bit older than Lily."

"Lily." Andromeda said the name affectionately, her eyes crinkling. "How is she? Is she walking yet?"

Lily was a favorite of theirs'. Teddy felt himself grin. "She's standing," he reported, "But you've got to hold onto her. Aunt Ginny says she'll be walking any day now."

"And then running, and talking." Andromeda shook her head. "You'll have to look out for her then."

"I will," Teddy promised as Harry came into the kitchen, Nancy quick on his heels. Andromeda gave a shout upon seeing him, and he went immediately to her side and offered her a quick peck on the cheek.

"Nancy says you're feeling better," he said by way of greeting, and Andromeda dismissed his concern with a wave of her hand.

"Enough about me," she said shortly. "A summer's cold is nothing to get worked up about. Sit for a minute, Harry. Tell me about your party. Happy birthday, by the way."

"Thank you," Harry said. He patted Andromeda's shoulder, then moved around the table to sit across from Teddy. He gestured towards the dish that Nancy was putting into the refrigerator. "Ginny's sent some food along, from yesterday. We were very sorry you couldn't make it. The children were asking for you."

"Teddy was just telling me that Lily's close to walking."

"We're all in trouble soon," Harry said lightly. He smiled at Teddy, then turned to Andromeda with a more serious expression on his face. "Andy, I hope you don't mind that I take Teddy to Diagon Alley in the morning. We can wait till you're up to it, of course, but I thought getting out of the way might be better-"

"Don't even bother asking," Andromeda interrupted. "You know how I loathe crowds like that, Harry. I'd be very relieved if I knew he was going with you."

Harry nodded, his glasses slipping down his nose a bit. He pushed them back, took his wand from behind his ear. "What have they given you at Mungoes for your chest?" He asked, and Andromeda sighed.

"The usual run of elixers and such," she said. "Really, I do wish you would all stop asking. It's nothing to be alarmed about."

"You said that last winter, too," Teddy said quietly, his stomach cold. Last winter, she'd told him to stop worrying over her – "it's nothing more than a winter cold, Teddy!"- and then she'd been in St. Mungo's for three weeks with a terrible pneumonia, which Harry had told him was a Muggle illness that filled up your lungs with fluid and gave you a terrible fever.

"This isn't the same thing at all, Teddy," Andromeda told him softly. "I've been to see the healers and they've already assured me that I should be fine in just a few days. All right?"

Teddy nodded dismally. Andromeda went on: "Until then, I'd feel better if you stayed with your uncle and aunt. I don't want you catching anything, not so close to school starting."

It was the exact same thing Harry had told him yesterday. He fought the urge to roll his eyes. "I know, Grams."

"All right." She studied him shrewdly another minute, then reached out and drew him in for a lingering hug. "Now, you two had best be on your way. I've got several of the ladies on their way over and if they catch you here, they'll never let you go." She winked at Harry, who laughed as he stood.

"Tell them all I said hello," he said drily. "That ought to hold them over for another year or so."

"Tell Ginny I said thank you for the food. She really didn't need to."

"Please." Harry snorted. "There's so much leftover, I don't know how we're going to manage to eat it all."

"I'll take care of the cake for you," Teddy offered, and Harry laughed.

"I don't doubt it," he said. He waved good bye to Nancy, hugged Andromeda quickly, and steered Teddy out the door, both hands clasped on his shoulders. "You don't mind Apparating, do you? I've got to get a couple things for Ginny."

"It's fine," Teddy said dully. He felt more than a little awful, leaving his grandmother there when she was clearly not feeling well, but he hooked his arm tight around Harry's elbow and turned with him on the spot, squeezing his eyes shut as the familiar, sickening feeling of being ripped and twisted and flung took over-

His feet hit the ground and he stumbled, but Harry caught his arm and hauled him back up. "One day," he said grimly, "You'll get the hang of it, Teddy."

"I hope," Teddy said weakly, blinking. They were standing in the square of Godric's Hollow, a small cobblestoned common with a statue in the middle, surrounded by bright bushes of blooming hydrangeas, orchids, and lilies. Around them, wizards and witches bustled by, most of them with baskets hanging over their arms, and chattering away as they went. Some nodded to Harry, smiled at Teddy, but most went by without a backwards glance. Harry Potter was not such a celebrity here in Godric's Hollow as he was everywhere else. Teddy supposed it was difficult to idolize someone when you saw them in their slippers, drinking coffee on their front steps, or chasing their loose dogs around the square.

Harry led him into the market, a small store with a tall paned glass front window, above which hung a wooden sign. HAWKER'S MEAT & GREENS shouted at them in yellow lettering. Inside, aisles lined with a variety of food stuffs greeted them. Teddy followed Harry over to the vegetable bins, where Harry bent to inspect a bunch of tomatoes.

"What does Aunt Ginny need?" He asked, and Harry glanced at him.

"Red onions."

"Those are tomatoes."

Uncle Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm aware, Ted." Then he unbent and, stepping over to where the onions were stacked together, a jumble of reds and yellows and whites bulbs, he asked, softly. "You all right?"

Teddy looked away, across the shop, where a young mother was wrestling with her little boy over a baguette. "She'll be okay, won't she?" He asked quietly.

"Your grandmother? I expect so." Harry was rooting among the onions, looking, Teddy supposed, for the biggest one. "This isn't anything like last winter, Teddy. She's been to the healers and they're taking care of it. There really isn't anything for you to worry about."

"You looked a little worried, earlier," Teddy pointed out, and Harry offered him a lopsided grin over the stack of onions.

"You know me," he said. "I worry about everything, whether it needs worrying or not."

"So do I."

"You're much like your father that way." Harry emerged from behind the bin with an onion clutched in each hand. "He spent an awful lot of time worrying over whether or not everyone else was okay, and I don't think he paid nearly as much attention to himself as he should have."

"Are you saying I ought to be worried about myself?" Teddy asked, a little irritated.

Harry frowned at him. "I'm saying you're eleven-"

"Thanks, I didn't know-"

"- and that you ought to try just enjoying things, Ted, rather than trying to shoulder everything yourself." Harry smoothly overrode Teddy's interruptions, his frown softening. "It isn't your place to take care of everything for yourself- that's what we do, all right? Aunt Ginny and your Grams and me- that's our job."

"You always say that," Teddy sniped, and Harry chuckled.

"It's always true."

Teddy sighed but said nothing more as Harry headed towards the cash register. He waited patiently while Harry paid, nodding at Hawkers, the grocer, and greeting a few boys that he knew from around the village as they came in, sweating and dirt stained.

They left and started up the street, away from the shops, where small businesses gave way to tidy cottages and small, neat gardens. Further up, Teddy knew, the cobbled street turned to a grassy country lane, uninterrupted for long stretches on either side for acres except for the occasional old farmhouse, large and manicured, set back from the street behind immaculate stone hedges and wide lawns. This was where the well to do lived, and at the top of the hill, the gate to the Potter's home swung idly in a late summer breeze.

Every day during the warmer weather, Teddy knew that Harry liked to Apparate from the Ministry to the beginning of the country road and walk home, up the hill and past the neighboring farms, to his own house. Sometimes he sent a Patronus ahead and Teddy would meet him halfway with the dogs, and, in more recent years, Jamie and Al. "I don't like to take for granted being able to live here," Harry had told Teddy once. "I like to take a little time each day to remind myself how blessed I am to have a place to walk home to, every night."

Passing through the gate, Teddy and Harry were greeted by Alecto and Bronte, jumping and barking. Teddy laughed and ran with them the length of the lawn, all the way to the house, where Jamie and Al were napping, curled into each other on the length of the front porch hammock. They stirred when Alecto clambered onto the porch and stuck his nose into the back of Jamie's leg, but Teddy shooed him away before going inside, where he found Aunt Ginny rocking Lily in the parlor.

"I was wondering where you'd gotten to," she said. She seemed half asleep herself, her eyes half lidded and her red hair loose around her shoulders. "Where's your uncle?"

"Probably checking on the boys," Teddy said. "We got you onions."

"Red?"

"They're kind of purplish…"

Ginny grinned at him. "Those're the right ones." She stood as Harry came through the door, handing him Lily and reaching up to kiss him. "There's lunch on the table," she told Teddy, and Teddy went through the foyer to the kitchen, where he found a sandwich and a plate of crisps waiting for him. He sat down and dug in, and a few minutes later, Aunt Ginny came in alone, onions in hand. She ruffled his hair and moved to the vegetable bin.

"How's your gram?"

"Better," Teddy answered, but it felt like a lie to say so. "She says thank you for the leftovers."

"Merlin knows we have enough to spare." Ginny came to the table, twisting her hair back into a quick bun and sticking her wand through it. "How's the sandwich?"

He grinned at her. "It'll do."

Aunt Ginny rolled her eyes. "Git." She rested her elbows on the table and studied him closely a minute. "You all right?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Teddy said in exasperation, and Ginny arched an eyebrow at him.

"What, is it a crime now to worry over you?"

Teddy sighed and looked away. "Where did Uncle Harry go?"

"I believe out onto the front porch, to nap with Lily and the boys. He's been tired, of late." She shrugged and reached across the table to pluck what was, Teddy imagined, part of a crisp off of his shirt. "It looks like it's just you and me for a bit, Teddy Bear. Fancy a fly?"

They left the dishes on the table and went out to the back field, where Ginny mounted her Nimbus and Teddy his Firebolt. They spent the next few hours out there, Ginny offering Teddy tips and pointers and Teddy generally in awe of his godmother. Ginny had been retired for five years now, since she'd been pregnant with Jamie, but she hadn't lost any of the grace or speed she'd possessed when she'd been Chaser for the Harpies.

"Someday, Teddy," she said in mock solemnity as they hovered some twenty odd feet above the grassy field, "I have high hopes that you'll follow in my footsteps."

"And be a Harpy?"

"No, you git, a professional Quidditch player." She nodded at his shirt, now stained green from some numerous tumbles. "And not for some subpar team, either."

Teddy laughed and swung his broom idly in a circle, moving around Ginny. "Did my mother fly well?" He asked, and Aunt Ginny sighed, a little smile playing at the corner of her lips.

"Let's just say that physical coordination was not one of your mum's strong suites," she said. "But she was fair at it, I suppose."

"My dad?"

"I can't really recall seeing him on a broom, to be honest," Aunt Ginny admitted. "But there's plenty of other fantastic flyers in your blood pool, myself and Harry included."

"You're too far removed to count, I think," Teddy said woodenly. Sometimes, he thought, despite being surrounded by so many people, so much of the time, he was terribly alone.

Ginny must have seen the pensiveness in his face, because she bumped the tip of her broom lightly with his and said sternly, "Hey. No moping today. One more race, and then let's get inside. I need some help with dinner-"

"Putting leftovers out is a doozy of a job," Teddy interrupted with a smirk, and Aunt Ginny laughed out loud.

"I was going to say, I need some help with dinner and the boys, and besides- you've got to get ready for Diagon Alley tomorrow." She tossed her head and pointed her broom towards the barn. "Ready, Teddy? Last one there's got to feed Al."

Al was a horror to feed. Teddy grimaced and bent low over his broom, clutching the wooden shaft tight between his gloved fingers. "First one there gets their choice of cake for dessert," he bargained, and Aunt Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Fair enough," she agreed, and Teddy blasted off before she could even begin the count down.


	3. Chapter 3: Diagon Alley

_An: Thank you all for the reviews, favorites, and follows so far! Writing in a world as well-loved as Harry Potter's is a bit of an intimidating thing to do, so I'm pleased to see that so far, I haven't done it really terribly! I hope you all enjoy the next chapter and that you'll be more than happy to leave me some comments or questions! (I'd be more than happy to answer them!) Thank you!_

 **Chapter Three: Diagon Alley**

Teddy fell asleep that night on the couch, where Harry had read them a story before bed. He thought that perhaps he was a little too old for bedtime stories, but Jamie always insisted that he listen too, and besides, Uncle Harry always read the best stories. He didn't stick strictly to Wizarding tales, like a lot of wizarding families tended to do, but made a habit of picking up some Muggle book every now and then. This summer they were reading "The Chronicles of Narnia", which Teddy had read about a hundred times but loved hearing again. They were on "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and Teddy fell asleep right after Caspian had pulled up in his beautiful ship to rescue them from the sea-

Later, he was surprised when he woke in his own bed, Bronte laying heavily on his feet and the white moon bright and far away in his window. He mused sleepily at his wakening, at the hurried voices down the stairs, the shadows cast by rapidly moving figures standing beneath the hallway lights at the bottom of the staircase…

 _If it was anything to worry about,_ Teddy told himself foggily _, Bronte would be up. And Uncle Harry…_

He fell back asleep, the distant wooshing of a Floo ringing in his ears.

xxxxx

When he woke again, it was morning. Bronte was gone, and the sunlight pouring in his windows was muted and sallow. Raindrops slopped unceremoniously against the window pane, and Teddy felt his spirits dampen. Diagon Alley in the rain was a mess, but he hurried out of bed all the same, being careful to dress so as to appease Ginny: jeans instead of shorts, a t-shirt that didn't have anything to do with the Cannons, and his Wellies, before rushing down the stairs. He was surprised to see from the godfather clock in the upstairs hallway that it was only a little past six-thirty.

In the kitchen, he found Ginny nursing Lily and drinking a cup of tea. She looked more tired than ever, but she offered him a bleary smile all the same. "You're up early."

"Do you think it's raining in London?" Teddy asked urgently, and Ginny's smile flattened into a thin line. His stomach lurched. "What? What's happened?"

"I'm afraid Uncle Harry won't be able to take you to Diagon Alley today," Aunt Ginny said softly. "We had a _patronus_ last night from Kingsley. There's been an emergency and Harry and Ron and many of the other Aurors have been called in to handle it."

Teddy stood numbly. "But he said that Kinglsey said himself he wasn't to come back in till Wednesday, at the earliest," Teddy said. His voice sounded far away, even to his own ears. "That's still two days away."

Aunt Ginny nodded. "I know, Teddy, but Kingsley unfortunately doesn't have a say in it when things like this crop up-"

"Things like what?" Teddy demanded. The thick, cold feeling of disappointment was giving away to anger, sharp and bubbling. "Things more important than me?"

"Teddy, stop it," Aunt Ginny said firmly. At her chest, Lily shifted and whimpered, as if sensing the change in her mother's mood. "You know that there is nothing more important to your godfather than this family, and you know just as well that what he deals with at work is not for us to discuss with you."

Teddy felt his face burning. "I'm not a baby," he said angrily, and Aunt Ginny pursed her lips.

"No one's calling you a baby, Teddy." Then she softened. "I'm very sorry you're day's been ruined, but Harry told me to tell you that as soon as he gets back he'll make it up to you."

Harry was always having to make up something or another, to him or to someone else. Teddy shook his head. He felt dangerously, stupidly close to tears. "I don't care," he said sullenly. "He probably won't even be back till I'm on my way to Hogwarts."

Aunt Ginny sighed. "Teddy-"

"Forget it. I don't care." Teddy turned on his heel and left, making his way back up the stairs, past the boys, who were stirring in their beds, and up into his own room, where he slammed the door and kicked his Wellingtons into the far wall. He waited half a minute, listening to see if Aunt Ginny was coming after him, but when there was only the sound of Jamie bouncing on his bed, he flung himself backwards onto his blankets and stared at the ceiling through a haze of red. It wasn't fair of him to be rude to Ginny, he knew, and it probably wasn't fair of him to be mad at Uncle Harry, but for the moment, he didn't care. He was tired of Harry always having to save someone or other, and he was tired of Ginny always defending him. Just once, he thought selfishly, he'd like it if Harry could leave all those others to fend for themselves and just take care of him, for a change.

xxxxx

It rained all morning, which suited Teddy's mood just fine. He didn't go down for breakfast and tried to content himself with reading, but he found that after a while he was still too angry to get into the story. A little before lunchtime he went downstairs and found Ginny in the parlor with the boys, helping them build a castle from blocks.

"I suppose you're hungry," she said wryly, and Teddy was suddenly angry at her too, for being so calm and accepting of Harry's sudden departure.

"Can I go flying?" He asked, avoiding her question, and she frowned.

"In this weather, I'd really rather you didn't-"

"Of course," Teddy interrupted bitingly. "I can't go to Diagon Alley, I can't go flying – I can't do anything at all, because everything else is-"

"Teddy, stop it," Ginny said evenly, but Teddy could hear the warning in her voice. Apparently so could Al and Jamie, because they looked up from their blocks to their mother, their eyes wide. "I've already apologized and explained to you the situation from this morning, and I can tell you that walking about with that attitude is not going to make things any better for you. And no, you're not flying, because I'm not about to let you go banging off into a thunderstorm. It's dangerous. No."

"You flew in storms before-"

"On a protected Quidditch pitch," Aunt Ginny rebutted. "I said no, Teddy. Now, do you want lunch?"

"I'm not hungry," Teddy said stiffly, and turned and marched out of the room.

Despite his contradictions, Teddy was very hungry. He ate a piece of cake in the kitchen while Aunt Ginny finished the castle with the boys, then, while she was putting them down for their nap, he slipped on his trainers and raincoat and went out the door.

He wasn't a child, he told himself crossly as he undid the latch on the broom shed door. If he couldn't go to Diagon Alley, the least he should be allowed to do was go flying. It was raining, pretty badly, but he hadn't seen lightning for nearly an hour and besides – it was his broom. Harry'd given it to him, not Ginny, and he should be the one who decided when it got used and when it didn't.

He made it to the back field, where his feet sank past the soles of his trainers into the soggy grass and the sky, backed with rows of stony looking clouds, looked a lot more imposing than they had from his bedroom window. He stopped for a minute to reconsider, but just then a popping noise splintered across the field and Aunt Ginny appeared in front of him, hugging her sweater tight about herself in the whipping wind, and looking furious.

"What did I just tell you?" She snapped, and Teddy opened his mouth, but before he could speak, she reached out and grabbed ahold of his arm and pulled, and with a sickening lurch, Teddy was standing dizzily on the flagged stone floor of the kitchen, dripping wet and disorientated.

"You're supposed to warn me-"

He began, but Ginny reached forward and tugged his broom from his grasp so quickly that he stopped speaking.

"I told you it was too dangerous," Ginny said. There were spots of color, high on her cheeks, and her hair was plastered to her forehead, wet from just the few seconds on the field. "I told you no. I'm not being unfair, or unreasonable, or any of that stuff you've told yourself to justify disobeying me." Teddy felt his own cheeks begin to color, but he found that his earlier anger was being replaced with a crawling sense of embarrassment. "I am sorry you're day's been ruined. I am sorry Harry had to leave suddenly. Believe me, I get just as upset as you do when he disappears, but for Merlin's sake, Teddy, try to see the bigger picture here. Harry is important, not just to you and I, but to a whole lot of people and like it or not, sometimes we have to share him."

Teddy knew that. He found that he was feeling more incredibly embarrassed by the second, standing there dripping water all over the floor. "Aunt Ginny, I-"

"I didn't tell you you couldn't fly today to make you miserable, just as Harry didn't leave for work with the hopes of disappointing you. Believe it or not, we don't relish making you feel terrible. But you're eleven years old and you're old enough to be able to accept that sometimes, things don't turn out exactly as we'd like them to."

Teddy didn't know what to say. He supposed he could try to apologize, but Aunt Ginny looked too angry to hear any of that right now, so he kept quiet. Ginny studied him a moment longer, then held his broom back out to him. "You can put this in my room on your way up," she said shortly. "Get changed and come back down for lunch, please."

Teddy took the broom hesitantly, and Ginny turned and went to the refrigerator. He stood a moment longer, then went upstairs slowly, his heart buzzing in his ears and a sort of sick feeling in his stomach. Aunt Ginny hardly every scolded him, not like that, and he supposed the fact that he knew he deserved it made it a hundred times worse to hear.

He left his broom propped against the closet door in Harry and Ginny's room, then went up to his own, where he left his wet jeans and shirt and trainers in a pile on his bathroom floor and changed into a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt. He was shivering, despite the warmth of the attic, and the rain lashing against the windows only served to intensify the chill. He hung about for a few more minutes, then decided that if Ginny was going to yell at him again, he supposed it was better to just get it over with, and went back down.

Jamie was in the kitchen, sitting at the table and eating a slice of bread with jam. Teddy stood uncertainly in the doorway a minute, watching Ginny's back as she scrubbed at something in the sink –something she could have used magic for, he thought – and then, screwing up his courage, said quietly, "Aunt Ginny, I'm sorry."

Aunt Ginny turned, and Teddy was relieved to see that some of the angry flush had fled her face. She looked at him, her lips thin, and said, "Sorry for what, Teddy?"

Teddy fumbled a second. "For- for going to fly when you said not to," he said. "And for being rude to you about Uncle Harry leaving."

Aunt Ginny watched him a moment longer, then levitated a plate with a cheese sandwich and an apple to the table, next to James. "You know," she said, "I understand. He's your godfather, but he's my husband as well. I don't like it any more than you do when he has to break a promise or go away for days on end."

"I know," Teddy said softly. He felt wretched, and still cold. He _did_ know. "I'm sorry."

Aunt Ginny offered him a weak smile and jerked her head towards the table. "I know you are, Teddy. Sit and eat, all right?"

Teddy sat next to Jamie, who was licking the marmalade off the top of the bread with his tongue. He squinted at Teddy. "Green, Teddy," he commanded, and Teddy concentrated for a moment, until the tips of his bangs peeking down into his eye sight was bright green. Jamie squealed, and Aunt Ginny laughed as she came over to the table with a glass of iced tea.

"Leave Teddy alone, Jamie," she said. "Let him eat." Then, to Teddy's surprise, she leaned down and kissed the top of his head. "I do love you, Teddy," she said to him. "But touch that broom before tomorrow afternoon and I won't be nearly as pleasant, you understand?"

Teddy nodded and turned to his lunch.

xxxxx

Harry made it home that night, but it wasn't until long after Teddy had been in bed. It was close to midnight when the roar of the Floo roused Bronte from Teddy's feet and Teddy, after debating sleepily for several minutes on whether or not it was worth it to go after him – he rather liked the dog sleeping on top of him- slipped from his bed and went downstairs.

The wooden staircase was cold under his bare feet, and he shivered a little as he went. At the bottom of the attic staircase, he heard voices coming from the first floor, so he tiptoed across the hallway and was halfway down the stairs when he recognized the voices to be Uncle Ron and Harry.

"-s'a mess, really," Ron said in a low voice. Teddy paused, one foot hovering over the last third to last stair, and held his breath. "We still haven't had any luck with getting a warrant out of the Wizengamot, and the Auror team over in Russia seems to think they should be the ones to handle it themselves."

"Never mind it's one of our families that's been killed," Harry said shortly. Something ceramic chattered on wood- Teddy guessed that Ginny had made them all tea. "They're saying it's enough we've got Fenrir in Azkaban, that Rotteger's on their soil and they'll see to his containment-"

"He isn't contained, though, is he?" Ginny said softly, an edge to her voice that Teddy was not used to hearing. "He isn't, if he's managed to do this over here?"

"We don't know that it's him for sure, Gin," Ron answered. "We suspect as much, but only because he's the best lead we've got-"

At that moment Alecto bounded out of the parlor into the foyer and, upon seeing Teddy standing there in the shadows of the steps, gave a short bark. Before he could even move, Uncle Harry was standing in the foyer, wand at the ready. His Auror robes were filthy, and his face was white and drawn. His expression darkened when he saw Teddy standing there, and Teddy, who supposed he'd already gotten in enough trouble for one day, hastened to explain.

"I was only just coming down-"

"How much did you hear?" Uncle Harry asked curtly, and Teddy's shoulders slumped.

"Not much," he answered honestly, and Uncle Harry asked:

"Were you standing there listening?"

Teddy debated for a moment whether or not it was worth it to hazard a lie, but the ominous expression on Harry's face convinced him otherwise.

"Just a minute," he confessed, and Uncle Harry closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers, and took a long, deep breath. Teddy was startled to see that Harry was shaking, the tip of wand moving in tiny jerks through the air.

"We've talked about this, Ted."

Teddy startled. "I know," he said miserably. When Harry said nothing else for a long minute, Teddy asked, unable to contain himself : "Is Greyback loose?"

Uncle Harry's eyes snapped open. "No," he said stolidly. "Not even close. And I would appreciate it, Teddy, if you would do as I say once in a while and stop trying to puzzle my work out."

"I wasn't trying to puzzle anything out," Teddy protested. Uncle Harry opened his mouth, but Teddy plowed on: "I heard the Floo and wanted to come see you, and then I heard you mention Greyback-"

"And then you decided to stand there and see what else you could hear?" Teddy felt, for the second time that day, a tendril of guilt worming through his stomach. He looked at his feet, which were still cold, and waited for Harry to speak. Harry, apparently, was waiting for Teddy to speak, because he said nothing as well, and for a long minute, Teddy listened to the sounds of Ginny and Ron talking in low voices in the kitchen and the rain whipping against the house-

"I'm sorry, Teddy, that I wasn't able to take you to Diagon Alley today," Uncle Harry said, very softly. Teddy blinked up at him, wincing a little when he saw how grave his godfather's face was. "But I think you know as well as I do that that's no excuse to disobey Ginny or myself."

Teddy nodded. "I know."

"I'm not trying to keep you in the dark, but the fact of the matter is that there are things that I have to deal with that I would much rather you have no part in at all."

"You did all sorts of stuff when you were my age," Teddy said before he could stop himself, and Harry sighed.

"Yes, because there was no one else there who could do them," he said pointedly. "I didn't have a godfather to look out for me, or a godmother, or even a grandmother. What happened to me when I was your age and what happens to you are two entirely different matters, and I would like it very much if you could try to keep the two separate in your mind."

Teddy flushed. "I know. I'm sorry, I just…" The words died on his tongue and he stood there, feeling pinned to the spot by his godfather's inscrutable gaze. He didn't know how to say what he felt, that sometimes he thought that there were lots of shoes for him to fill up, and he doubted very seriously that he would ever get the chance to.

"I'm sorry," he said again, at last, and Uncle Harry sighed, stuck his wand behind his ear, and stepped forward to wrap Teddy in a tight hug.

"Teddy," he said, into his hair, "What am I going to do with you?" He released Teddy and stood back, a small smile twisting his mouth. "I suppose I could try taking your broom, but I heard Ginny's already done that."

Teddy's stomach sank. "She told you?"

"She didn't have to. I'm nearly a hundred percent sure that your broom's not in my closet because you've forgotten where the shed is." He chuckled, then reached out and brushed a tuft of hair back off of Teddy's forehead. "Shall I send Bronte up to you?" He asked, and Teddy allowed himself a small smile, despite the roiling in his stomach.

"It gets lonely up there without him," he admitted, and Uncle Harry smiled.

"I'd bet." He whistled, and Bronte came trotting obediently out of the kitchen, his tongue lolling out of his wide mouth. "You'd better get back to sleep, Teddy Bear. We've a long day of shopping ahead of us, you know."

Teddy felt suddenly warm all over. "We're going to Diagon Alley?"

"Of course we are," Uncle Harry answered. "You didn't think I'd forgotten, did you?"

Teddy sheepishly shook his head, and Harry reached out to give it one more affectionate tousle. "Get to bed, you. I've got to go kick Ron out of my kitchen before he eats the whole thing spare."

"Give him the leftovers," Teddy instructed, and Uncle Harry laughed. Teddy clucked to Bronte, and the bulldog followed him back up the stairs to his attic bedroom, which was suddenly not so cold as it had been before. It had to have something to do with Uncle Harry being home, Teddy thought as he slithered back down underneath his covers. Even the old farmhouse was happier when Harry was home.

xxxx

The next morning dawned bright and clear, much to Teddy's relief. Uncle Harry was at breakfast when he came downstairs, dressed in his favorite 'POTTER' Harpy's jersey, his Hogwarts letter folded and tucked carefully into his back pocket.

"Morning, Teddy," Aunt Ginny said from where she was sitting on the window seat, feeding Lily. She smiled tiredly at him. "Got your school list?"

"Of course," Teddy replied. He snuck a tentative glance at Uncle Harry, who was reading The Daily Prophet with his wand stuck behind his ear. "We are still going, aren't we?"

"I'd say we've put it off long enough," Uncle Harry answered from behind the newspaper. He nodded at the table. "Sit and eat and we'll be off. What do you fancy? Toast? Eggs? Chocolate cake?"

"Chocolate cake?" Teddy ventured, and Uncle Harry laughed. He laid the newspaper on the counter.

"I was kidding, Teddy. Oatmeal? We've got some yoghurt-"

"Toast is fine," Teddy told him. He rested his chin on his arms and watched as Harry popped the slices of bread in the toaster and levitated the jar of orange marmalade off of the top shelf in the cabinet. "Where're the boys?"

"Still sleeping," Ginny said. She shot Teddy a stern look. "And don't you dare go waking them before you leave. Give me an extra minute of peace and quiet, okay?"

"I won't," Teddy assured her. Harry levitated the plate of toast across the kitchen island to the table, where Teddy plucked it out of midair and took a bite of a piece. "Are we taking the Floo?"

"I thought it might be easier on you than Apparition," Uncle Harry said. He wandered over to where Aunt Ginny was sitting, coffee cup in hand, and bent to kiss Lily on the crown of her head. "Get a jumper before we leave, Ted. It's chilly today."

Teddy crammed the last piece of toast in his mouth and stood in a rush. "Better that than rain!" He dropped his plate in the sink and took the stairs two at a time to his room, where he dug around until he found a parka that was moderately clean. He zipped it on, brushed his teeth, arranged his blue hair very carefully, and hopped back down the stairs. Harry was just buttoning his own jacket in the foyer. He smiled at Teddy. "You all set?"

"I think so." Teddy took the list from his back pocket, unfolded it carefully. It was worn at the seams, nearly ripping from all of the times he had folded and unfolded it since receiving it two months ago. "Do we need to stop at Gringotts?"

"Nope." Harry perched his wand behind his ear, called a good-bye into the kitchen, and headed into the parlor. "I suppose you're going to want to throw the powder," he said wryly, and Teddy frowned.

"I don't care," he said, and was surprised when Harry's face drooped for just a moment. He hurried on, "I mean- I don't want to get my letter dirty."

"It won't if it's in your pocket," Harry said pointedly. "It probably won't get lost that way, either."

Teddy almost pointed out that if he did lose it, it wouldn't matter, since he'd memorized the list anyways, but he got Harry's point. He folded the letter over, stuck it back in his back pocket, and took a handful of the powder. "Where to?"

Uncle Harry considered a moment, then grasped ahold of Teddy's shoulder. "Uncle George's," he said, and Teddy threw the powder and shouted:

"Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, Diagon Alley!"

The flames leapt up to meet them, and in a matter of seconds, Teddy was stumbling over the hearth into George Weasley's parlor, Harry at his side. George and Angelina Weasley and their two children lived in a spacious loft above the Diagon Alley joke shop, but at present it was deserted. Teddy shook the Floo powder from his feet and followed Harry across the parlor to the large foyer, where the front door of the flat led to the joke shop downstairs.

Downstairs, the shop was packed with children and teenagers alike, all hurrying to stock up on Skiving Snackboxes and the like before school was back in session. Harry pointed Teddy in the direction of the counter, where Uncle George, dressed in a bright maroon vest with matching bow tie and a golden shirt, was working alongside a younger witch to ring customers out. He grinned as they approached, pushing their way through the throngs.

"Hogwarts shopping?" He called over the noise of the crowd, and Teddy nodded. He felt Harry's hands on his shoulders.

"Lunch?" Uncle Harry asked, and George nodded.

"Meet us at the Cauldron at noon," he said as he took a handful of Galleons from a boy wearing a Puddlemere United jersey and a blue and silver Ravenclaw neck tie. "Neville'll be there- thank you," he said to the student, who had turned to stare at Harry with wide eyes. "Twelve sharp," he said to Harry, and Harry nodded his agreement before steering Teddy away from the counter and towards the door, where a line was forming to get into the shop.

Outside, Diagon Alley was a bustle of shoppers: wizards in long colorful robes, witches with baskets full of books and plants and vials hanging off the crooks of their elbows. Several young men sauntered by, broomsticks slung over their shoulders, bumping into each other and laughing. Children darted everywhere, jumping puddles left from yesterday's storm, and a trio of speckled barn owls swooped by low overheard, clutching brown paper wrapped packages in their talons.

"List?" Uncle Harry tapped Teddy's shoulder, bringing him back to the present. Teddy dug his list out of his pocket and presented it to his godfather, turning his back on the people pressing by. Already he could see people whispering, people stopping in their tracks as they passed by to stare. Uncle Harry didn't seem to notice though; he leaned casually against the front window of the joke shop and studied Teddy's list with a vapid concentration. "I suppose we ought to get all of the boring stuff out of the way first," he said at last, and Teddy pulled a face.

"None of its boring," he contradicted. Harry arched an eyebrow at him in amusement.

"Robes?" He asked, and Teddy stuck out his tongue.

"Never mind," he amended sourly, and Uncle Harry laughed and handed Teddy the list.

"Malkin's it is, then," he said, and pushed off the wall.

Madame Malkin's was half a mile further down Diagon Alley, closer towards the Leaky Cauldron, and today it was slow going. Teddy walked a few paces behind Uncle Harry, who had to keep stopping to greet witches and wizards who wanted to shake his hand or share a few words. Harry was always so gracious about it, so polite and well mannered, but it all made Teddy want to scream. By the time they reached Madame Malkin's, he was in a decidedly worse mood than he had been just a half hour before at breakfast.

Madame Malkin was a portly witch with grey curls peeking out from underneath a tall, round cap, from which stuck a hundred different sized pins and needles. She came bustling out from around the curtain that separated the fitting rooms from the front of the store, and clapped her hands together when she saw them.

"Mr. Potter!" She cried. "How wonderful to see you!" She rushed around the counter to shake Harry's hand, rather enthusiastically. "I was beginning to wonder when you would be in again! You know, I saw your wife just several weeks ago- she's looking striking, she is, especially for just having that baby! Beautiful little girl, by the way, Mr. Potter- what did you say her name was? I do hope you got the card I sent-"

"Lily," Harry answered swiftly. "We called her Lily, Madame, after my mother."

"Beautiful name, beautiful name- and look who you've brought to see me!" She turned suddenly to Teddy and pressed her hands against his face, squishing. "I daresay you're all grown up! Here for school robes, are you? Not going to cry this time, I hope?"

Teddy felt himself turn red. When he'd come to be fitted for robes for Harry and Ginny's wedding, nearly seven years ago now, he'd cried hysterically the entire time he'd been being fitted. He couldn't remember exactly why he'd been so upset anymore, but it was apparently an episode that Madame Malkin seemed determined to hold on to until the day she died.

"I think you'll find Teddy's past that stage," Uncle Harry said drily. He nudged Teddy. "You all right if I sit here? Don't need me back there, right?"

"I'm fine," Teddy replied in a strangled sort of voice. He was still burning red, and he eagerly followed Madame Malkin behind the curtain, into a long room where more than a dozen wide stools were arranged. Half of those were occupied with children, standing tall with their arms out straight at their sides, being attended to by flying measuring tapes and magicked pins. Madame Malkin led him to a stool quite removed from the others, which allowed Teddy a considerable amount of relief, and instructed him to climb up and stand still with his arms held out.

"Whatever you do, don't move," she warned, and flicked her wand, and three measuring tapes and a role of black wool sprang into service, swaddling Teddy. Madame Malkin nodded in satisfaction, then bustled away again as the shop bell chimed, and as a pincushion rose lazily from a nearby sewing bin and swarmed over, Teddy remembered suddenly why he'd been crying:

He hated needles.

Several minutes later, Madame Malkin came back, this time leading a lanky teenage boy, perhaps only several years older than Teddy. She brought him to the stool next to Teddy, instructed him to stand still, waved her wand, and dodged across the room, where a girl was wailing that she'd been stuck. Teddy started straight ahead and tried not to catch sight of any of the needles whizzing dangerously around his arms and chest-

"Hello," the boy next to him said cheerily, and Teddy blinked.

"Um… Hi," he replied, and the boy sniffed.

"First year?" He asked airily, and Teddy caught himself before he could nod.

"Yes," he said. "You?"

"Third." The boy paused. "Ravenclaw, of course. Where do you suppose you'll end up?"

Teddy hadn't the foggiest. It was another problem he was trying too hard not to dwell on. "I don't know," he confessed, and the boy hurried on, as if he hadn't heard a word at all:

"You know Harry Potter's here, don't you?"

Teddy felt the familiar flush rising in his cheeks. "Yes."

"Bit of a shock, to see him sitting out there by himself. I expect my father's got him all bungled into a conversation. I shook his hand as I came in," he added, a little smug. Teddy rolled his eyes. "Did you shake his hand?"

Shut up, Teddy thought tiredly, but he only ground out, "No."

"No? That's a shame. You ought to do it on your way out, if he's still there." He paused. "He's much taller in the papers, isn't he?"

Uncle Harry was not a large man. He was, Teddy thought, as far as men went, rather small. "So?" Teddy asked waspishly. "It isn't size that matters at all."

"I didn't say that it was," the boy replied, but his voice was spiked with irritation. Just then Madame Malkin bustled back over, waved her wand, and the measuring tapes and needles and cloth fell away from Teddy and zoomed off to some other part of the shop.

"All set, Teddy!" She beamed, and hurried up front. Teddy re-adjusted his jersey and was about to hop off the stool when the boy spoke again.

"My dad says his adopted son's to start school this year," he said. "I expect you'll share some classes together, as you'll be in the same grade."

"I expect so," Teddy said tightly, and the boy went on, in a quieter voice:

"I'd be very careful, if I were you."

"What?"

"You know, with all the werewolf attacks and such as of late. They say his godson's one of them, or half, at least."

Teddy felt his chest thicken and go hot. Setting his jaw grimly, he turned to face the boy. "Don't be ridiculous," he snapped. "Werewolves aren't born, they're turned."

There was an angry flush to the other's face. "What, are you an expert?" He sneered, and Teddy hopped off the stool at the same time Harry stepped around the curtain.

"No, I'm just not an idiot," Teddy replied angrily, and Uncle Harry, who hadn't heard the conversation, asked:

"Are you coming, Ted?"

Teddy could feel the boy's stare pinning him, and his godfather, and for some reason, it made him want to cry. He pushed past Harry, snatched the package off the counter with his name printed on it, and was out the door before Harry could even pay.

Outside, he waited with his back to the shop wall, rubbing furiously at the pinpricks of tears in his eyes. The package of dress robes lay forgotten at his feet, and when Harry came out, he said nothing, but just bent to pick them up, shrunk them, and dropped them into the pocket of his jacket. "You all right?" He asked quietly, and Teddy looked away from him, at the sunlight sparkling off a nearby rain puddle.

"Do you know people think I'm a werewolf?" He asked, and Uncle Harry's face drooped.

"Teddy-"

"Mr. Potter! How good to see you!" It was another bumbling old wizard, one that Teddy sincerely doubted his godfather knew at all, but nonetheless, Harry shook his hand quickly and then just as swiftly had pushed him away and pulled Teddy down the street, an arm looped over his godson's shoulders.

"Teddy," he said seriously, "People are always going to say terrible things, or believe vicious rumors, no matter what we do to try to stop them. All I can say to you is that you know who you are, and that's all that matters."

Teddy didn't think this advice was comforting in the least, but it was nice to walk so close to Harry, without having to stop to make small talk or take pictures, so he didn't say that. Instead, he ventured, "Have there been werewolf attacks? Is that what's got you so busy at work?"

Uncle Harry's face tightened. "There has been some…activity, in outlying communities," he said slowly. "But that's all that's public knowledge and that's all I care for you to know."

"You can tell me," Teddy told him earnestly. "I won't tell a soul."

"Enough, Ted." Uncle Harry steered him into yet another doorway. "Books next, then cauldron?"

Teddy knew he wasn't going to get anything further out of Harry, so he acquiesced. "Books," he agreed sullenly, and Harry tousled his hair.

"Good b-"

"Mr. Potter!"

xxxx

It took them what seemed like forever to move from one shop to the next. Everywhere they went they were held up by blushing witches who wanted to shake Harry's hand, by blithe old wizards who wanted to talk Ministry details with him, by shop girls who stared and fumbled and dropped their purchases and oftentimes forgot how to use the register. The boys with the broomsticks on their shoulders circled back and asked Harry to sign their broom handles, which Harry did. He seemed happier to give into their requests than he had the others and for several minutes, he spoke to them about Quidditch. They were on the Gryffindor team and were friendly to Teddy, but all the same, when they finally shook them off and headed for the Leaky Cauldron, Teddy was sick to death of crowds.

At the Leaky Cauldron, Hannah Longbottom had a table set aside for them, near the back staircase, out of the way of the lunch crowd. Uncle George and Aunt Angelina were already there, with six year old Roxanne and four year old Freddie, who cheered when they saw Teddy. He sat in between them and spent all of the lunch amusing them by turning his hair different color and changing his skin tone and elongating his nose. Neville and Hannah joined them, with their year old daughter Alice, and Lee Jordan, whom Teddy didn't know as well as the others, showed up too. Lunch lasted longer than Teddy thought it would, and by the time they left the inn, it was nearly two o'clock.

Teddy was relieved to see that some of the crowding had died down. He was full of Hannah's stew and had decided, over the course of lunch, to wear his hair his natural reddish-brown, like his father's. He kept pace with Harry as they re-entered Diagon Alley. The sky was a bit darker than it had been, and Harry squinted up at it. "Storm coming," he said casually. "Ready for your wand, Teddy Bear?"

Teddy felt a tremor in his stomach. "Yes," he replied, in nearly a whisper, and Harry smiled affectionately at him.

"Excited?"

Teddy nodded, but he couldn't help the grin that split his face. Together, they went down the street to Ollivander's, whose shop front wall was home to the Second Wizarding War Memorial. A compilation of several hundred names – wizards and muggles and mystical creatures alike- was etched painstakingly into the stone wall. Ollivander had done it all himself, Uncle Harry had told him, before he'd even rebuilt his shop. Teddy stopped, as he always did, to run his fingers over his parent's names before following Harry into the shop.

Inside, it was gloomy as usual. Tall shelves lined the walls from floorboard to ceiling, each crammed with thin wand boxes. A thick film of dust lay over everything in the shop. Teddy cringed at the sight of it all, then promptly sneezed. "D'you think his house-elf's taken the year off?"

"Hush, Teddy," Harry remonstrated him, then called into the shadowy depths of the store, "Garrick? Mr. Ollivander?"

From the back of the store where the darkness was the heaviest, there came a thump, and a thin voice called out something that Teddy didn't catch, Then, preceded by a series of shuffling footsteps, Garrick Ollivander came forward out of the shadows and gave a small cry of delight.

"Harry Potter!"

Uncle Harry smiled warmly and went forward to embrace the old man, gently, as if he were afraid that he would break. They spoke quietly to each other for a few moments, their faces very close, and Teddy watched them intently. He knew the story, of course, of Harry and Ollivander during the war; how Hermione and Ron and Harry had rescued him and Luna Lovegood and Dean Thomas from the Malfoy's basement, where they'd been tortured excruciatingly by Voldemort and his followers. There was an intimacy to Harry and Ollivander's exchange that Teddy had not seen his godfather share with anyone else today. He supposed that it came from having suffered through terrible ordeals together, and from having helped each other survive.

"Teddy's come for his wand," he heard Uncle Harry say, and Teddy broke from his reverie to offer Ollivander what he hoped was a confident smile. Truth be told, he'd always been a little frightened of Ollivander. He was the oldest man Teddy knew and he looked sickly all the time, paper white and so thin that a breeze might do him real damage. His large, pale eyes sought out Teddy's in the darkness of the shop, gleaming in the scant light.

"I was wondering when we'd see you," he said quietly. "I remember your father, you know. Ten and a quarter inches, cypress wood, hair-tail of a unicorn. Looking for something like that, I suppose? You look remarkably like him, you do, but for those cheekbones… That's Black, all the way. That's your mother in you, I think. Cherry wood, she had, nine and one-third inches, with a unicorn hair. Unicorn seems predominant, wouldn't you say, Mr. Lupin? Let's start there, shall we?"

He hurried away, moving a good deal faster than Teddy would have thought a man of his age would be able to, and began plucking and levitating boxes off of the shelves. He brought an armful to his counter and waved Teddy over impatiently. "Here, here, boy. Come now. Try these on for size."

Teddy hesitated, then lifted the lid off the first box. Inside, a long, thin branch of some dark wood rested on a pillow. He lifted it experimentally, and, at Ollivander's bidding, flicked it. Nothing happened.

"Nothing? No? Hmmm… that's mahogany for you, boy, very selective, I'm afraid… try this one, now."

He offered Teddy another box – "yew, eight and a half inches"- and once again, nothing happened. It was the same for the third, and fourth, and fifth, and on the sixth one, when Teddy opened the box and touched gently the dark red wood, long and wispy, he felt a warm tingle run through his fingertips and up his arms. He grinned, and Ollivander, his face half cast in shadow, grinned back.

"There's a smile…try it, Mr. Lupin."

Teddy took a deep breath and flicked the wand. A sunburst of golden sparks shot from the end and trickled to the floorboards, crackling and smoking. Teddy grinned and shook it again, and the sparks that fell out this time were bright blue.

"I think we've got a winner," Ollivander said softly. He was smiling, quite warmly. "Cherry wood, Mr. Lupin, eleven inches flat, with the tail of a unicorn. Nearly exactly like your mother's, as I suspected."

Teddy could only smile. He waited patiently while Ollivander packed the wand away and Uncle Harry paid, then stepped out of the shop into the grey gloom of the overcast London sky, cradling his boxed wand carefully in his hands. Uncle Harry affectionately tousled his hair.

"Happy, Teddy?" He asked, and Teddy found it suddenly hard to talk past the lump in his throat.

"It's almost just like my mum's, he said," he told Harry, and Harry nodded, though his smile was a little sadder now.

"I know. I heard." Then he clapped his hands together. "Okay! One more thing, and we're done!"

"What?" Teddy asked, wrinkling his nose. They'd gotten everything off the list: his trunk and his robes, his books, cauldrons, scales, vials, quills, ink, wand… He watched as Harry pointed, and he followed the tip of his godfather's finger till it met the sign above Eyelop's Owl Emporium.

"Oh." Some of Teddy's good cheer over the day fizzled out. He knew that his Gram probably hadn't sent along a lot of extra money; they weren't wealthy, like the Potters, though they got by comfortably. Sometimes, for no good reason at all, Teddy felt terribly guilty that Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny got him so much.

Uncle Harry was watching him closely. "Oh? What's oh?"

"It's- it's nothing."

"It's something." Harry was quiet. Teddy knew he was waiting, so he finally said, stoutly:

"You don't have to."

Uncle Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Teddy-"

"You don't have to, you know, feel like you have to-"

"Teddy, enough." Uncle Harry took him by the arm and drew him out of the street, back towards Ollivander's shop. There he pushed Teddy against the stone wall and leaned in very close to him and said, seriously, "Teddy, I know what I have to do, and what I don't have to do. I know I don't have to buy you an owl, but I would like to. Aunt Ginny and I have been looking forward to this for a very long time."

Teddy squirmed. Uncle Harry was altogether too close, and too quiet. "You already-"

"If you say I already spend too much on you, Teddy Lupin, I promise you I'll be furious," Uncle Harry said sternly. "You know I love you, and you know I'm not trying to buy your love with gifts or anything of that sort. You know I care for you very much, and I would like you to be happy, and have everything that everyone else does. And you know how much I dislike you feeling guilty over this."

Teddy blushed. "I don't feel guilty."

"You're an awful liar. So was your mother." Uncle Harry bit his lip, sighed, and went on, in a calmer voice, "I won't get you one if you really don't want one."

He fell silent, looking expectantly at Teddy, who frowned. He'd been secretly hoping for one for weeks- and he did feel a little guilty, but it was more for making Uncle Harry upset than anything. He knew his godfather and godmother and sort-of family loved him, and none of them minded sharing anything at all with him…and he did so want an owl of his own.

"I suppose I could get one," he said at last, with a crooked smile. "Since I can't take Bronte."

Uncle Harry was still frowning, just a little. "Hagrid got me my first owl for my eleventh birthday," he said. "The first time I came to Diagon Alley, before I came to school. I just remember- well it was nice to have a pet of my own. I thought you'd like the same."

"I would," Teddy said softly. "I just- aren't they terribly expensive?"

Uncle Harry shrugged. "I suppose they might be," he said casually. "But there's not a single better thing I can think of to do with my money than spend it on you." He straightened. "Besides – I would feel better if I knew you had a way to communicate with me, all the time, no matter what. No waiting around for a school owl to free up or asking for permission to use the Floo. Get an owl for my sake, Ted. I'm too old to be worrying so much."

"You aren't old," Teddy contradicted, but he pushed off the wall with a smile. "What color was Hedwig?"

"White," Harry replied. "She was beautiful."

They went together inside of Eyelops', where Teddy wrinkled his nose at the odor permeating the building. Owls were perched on every surface: the countertops, in cages, on the rafters. The din of hooting and screeching was overwhelming, and Teddy turned to Harry. "It isn't nearly this loud from outside."

"Muffling charm," Uncle Harry pointed out. He waved a hello to the shopkeeper, then nudged Teddy deeper into the store. "Look around, Teddy. Take your time."

Teddy stepped further into the shop, where he was soon lost among the maze of cages and bags of feed. Every step he took was tracked by what felt like hundreds of pairs of eyes: some yellow and round, others slitted and black, some grey, some green… Small bones crunched under his trainers, and he shuddered as feathered wing tips brushed the top of his head. Soon he was at the very back of the store, where a whole row of owls sitting on the wall were sleeping, their heads tucked under their wings. One by one, they lifted their heads as he approached, blinked at him, and trundled back down to continue their naps. All but one.

A great brown and black owl with tufts of horned feathers above his circular yellow eyes stared gravely at Teddy. He opened his beak and hooted, very softly, Teddy thought, for such an imposing bird. Teddy hesitated, then, slowly, he held out his arm. The owl considered it for a minute, his head cocked to one side, then he slipped off of stool and, with a flap of his wings, curled his talons into the nylon material of Teddy's parka and settled there.

"Found one, have you?"

Teddy started at the quiet voice in his ear. Turning, he found Uncle Harry standing behind him with his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets and smiling. "I think so," Teddy told him, and Harry stepped closer. The owl on Teddy's arm watched him silently.

"He's a Great Horned Owl, if I'm not mistaken," Uncle Harry murmered. "Beautiful bird. Great choice, Ted."

"I think – I think he chose me, rather," Teddy told him cautiously, and Harry nodded solemnly at him.

"Some things have a way of doing that," he said. He reached out a finger and ran it gently down the soft feathers between the owl's eyes. "Any idea what you'd like to call him?"

Teddy was hopeless at naming creatures. "I haven't a clue," he said glumly, and Harry chuckled.

"We've got loads of books at home, Teddy. I'm sure you'll be able to find something in one them." He paused. "And of course, Jamie will want to help you, I'm sure."

Teddy narrowed his eyes. "I'm not naming him Krum," he told Harry. Krum was what Jamie had named every single one of his stuffed animals, and his goldfish, and one of the family's owls. Aunt Hermione seemed rather embarrassed by it, but the name never failed to make Harry laugh.

Uncle Harry shuddered. "I should hope not." He jerked his head in the direction of the front of the shop. "Ready to go home, Teddy?"

On his arm, the unnamed owl hooted. Teddy nodded. "Ready."


	4. Chapter 4: The Nameless Owl

_**AN: As always, thank you so much for your reviews & favorites! I'm always so happy to see others are enjoying the story! As for updating, I'm trying to keep on a schedule of every ten days or so, but you should all know that when I'm not writing I attend college and work full time, so if I am late in updating I hope you'll all be able to forgive me! **_

**Chapter Four: The Nameless Owl**

As Harry had suggested, Jamie was more than enthusiastic about helping Teddy name his owl. He followed Teddy around the entire evening, launching names at him with a dogged persistence that impressed Teddy- but only just a little.

"Krum!"

"No, Jamie."

"Beedles!"

"No."

"Jamie!"

"No, _Jamie."_

"Krum!"

In the end, Teddy decided to barricade himself in Harry's office with Bronte, where he spent much of the night pouring over the books lining the wall's shelves. There were histories of the wizarding and Muggle worlds alike, as well as old Auror reports and medical histories and some old schoolbooks of Harry's. When Uncle Harry came in to tell him it was time for bed, Teddy sat up from where he was lying on the window seat, Bronte on his feet, and announced:

"This is hopeless."

Uncle Harry chuckled. "Take it easy, Ted." He whistled a short note and Bronte hauled himself, panting, off of Teddy's feet and made the short leap from the cushioned sill to the carpet on the office floor. "You don't need to name him right away."

"I don't think he'll ever have a name," Teddy moaned. "It's hopeless. _I'm_ hopeless. He's going to be the nameless owl for forever."

Uncle Harry rolled his eyes. "Come off it." Then he smiled suspiciously. "Though if worst comes to worst, you could always call him Krum."

Teddy glared.

Aunt Ginny insisted that the new owl sleep out in the owlery over the barn, with Krum, Wynfor, and Gabir, but Teddy made sure to keep his attic window open all night long. When he woke up the next morning, he was thoroughly chilled and his owl was roosting atop his mirror.

They were to go to Shell Cottage that day, as Ginny had an appointment with someone at the Daily Prophet and Harry wanted to go along with her. They were still eating breakfast when the Floo roared to life and Ron called out: "Hello, Potters!"

Jamie and Al squealed and slithered off their chairs, making for the living room. Teddy remained where he was, eating his oatmeal. Outside, on the windowsill over the sink, his owl stared forlornly through the window at him.

"He looks very sad out there," he hedged, quietly, and Aunt Ginny sighed.

"He's fine. The last thing I need is feathers all over the breakfast table."

"They let the owls on the tables at Hogwarts," Teddy pointed out, and Uncle Harry snorted into his cup of coffee. Aunt Ginny glared at him, then Teddy.

"They've also got about a thousand house-elves to help them clean those tables too. I've got none."

Teddy sighed but gave up. Just then Ron came through the doorway into the kitchen, Jamie on his back and Al and Rosie in his arms.

"Everyone ready to go?" He asked, and then, catching sight of the owl: "New owl?"

"He's mine," Teddy told him. "Uncle Harry got him for me yesterday."

Ron whistled, low and long. "He's a beaut, he is. What've you called him?"

"The Nameless Owl," Harry drawled, and Teddy glared at him.

"I haven't picked one out yet," he said. "I'm still thinking."

"Call him Krum!" Jamie demanded over Ron's shoulder, and both Ron and Uncle Harry burst into laughter.

"Go on, Teddy," Uncle Harry said when he was finished choking on his coffee. "Ron's taking you kids over. We'll be along later."

Teddy slid off his chair and went upstairs, where he dressed in his usual Quidditch jersey and shorts. After a long moment of consideration, he fixed his hair so it was black and wild atop his head, and took his wand out of its box on the top of his dresser and balanced it behind his ear, as Harry often did. It looked a bit silly, he thought, as it was so long and his head still so small, but in the end he decided that he didn't care and went downstairs. In the parlor, Uncle Harry was trying to wrestle Jamie into his trainers, and Al and Rosie were fighting over who got to carry Al's rucksack. Aunt Ginny came around the corner, carrying Lily, as Teddy descended the stairs, and she stopped in her tracks.

"For Merlin's sake, Teddy," she said with a laugh, "I thought you were Harry for a moment."

"I haven't got glasses," Teddy pointed out, and Aunt Ginny nodded.

"True enough." They continued together into the parlor, where Uncle Harry took one look at Teddy and said firmly:

"Wand stays here, Ted."

"I won't use it," Teddy protested. "I just want to show Vic and Dom."

"Teddy-"

"Oh, come on, Harry," Aunt Ginny interrupted, much to Teddy's surprise. "Bill and Hermione will be there to keep an eye on him. And besides- look how cute he is. You're practically twins."

Cute wasn't the look he was going for, but if it meant he could take the wand, he would take it. He turned his attention back to his godfather as Uncle Harry said, "Fine. But if it gets used- or broken- or lost, you're not going to Hogwarts."

Teddy gaped; Jamie and Al cheered. Uncle Harry rolled his eyes at them and amended, standing, "I'm kidding. But in all seriousness, Ted- nothing wonky with it, you hear me?"

Teddy nodded gravely. Al and Jamie looked altogether too thrilled with the idea of Teddy staying home from Hogwarts, so he opted instead for holding Rosie's hand as they stepped up to the Floo. Aunt Ginny scurried to give a flurry of good-bye kisses, then Ron threw in the powder and they stepped through.

They tumbled through into the kitchen of Shell Cottage, where Hermione and Fleur were drinking tea at the long, white ash table that filled most of the small room. Everything in Shell Cottage was nearly white: the smooth grey stones of the walls were imbedded with broken, pastel sea shells and the wooden floors were white-washed and sanded smooth. A driftwood fire was burning pleasantly in the grate on the wooden stove, and the sun shone brightly through the open windows. Hermione smiled at them.

"I see you've made it safely," she commented to Ron, who shook a bit of Floo powder from his hair, showering the surrounding children with it, and went to kiss his wife.

"Harry and Ginny'll be along sometime after lunch, I expect," he told her and Fleur. "When's Mum getting here?"

"Anytime now." Hermione took Lily from Ron and gave her a kiss; Lily gurgled. Rosie pulled her hand out of Teddy's and ran after Jamie and Al into the parlor. Hermione smiled at Teddy. "Is that your wand?"

"Yes." Teddy took it from behind his ear and crossed the kitchen to show it to Hermione. "It's cherry and unicorn, like my mum's."

Hermione took it from him, delicately. "It's beautiful, Teddy," She said. "I expect the girls will be terribly jealous." She winked at Teddy, who grinned.

"Here's hoping-"

"Teddy!"

Teddy turned, startled. In the kitchen doorway, Victoire was frowning. She was dressed in an oversized t-shirt that he assumed was her father's. From beneath the collar poked a pink bathing suit strap. "Come on, Papa is taking us to the beach!"

Teddy sighed and followed her out into the parlor, where a whole cluster of children were anxiously watching out the door onto the veranda, where Uncle Bill was levitating wooden beach chairs and baskets of towels out of the garden and down over the edge of the cliff. Teddy stuck his wand back behind his ear and had just made up his mind to go and join him when Victoire snagged ahold of his arm and jerked him backwards, towards the stairwell.

"Vic-"

"You've made the front page, Teddy," Victoire giggled. In the shadows of the stairwell, she picked up a copy of The Daily Prophet off of the floor, shook it off, and presented it to him with a smug smile. His stomach sinking, Teddy took it. He was dismayed to see that Victoire was right: there, on the front page, a moving mural of Harry leading Teddy out of Eyelops was situated under the headline CHILDREN OF THE WAR PREPARE FOR HOGWARTS.

"Do you want to read it, Teddy?" Victoire asked, and Teddy bunched it in ball and threw it on the ground.

"Forget about it," he snapped, and Victoire sniffled at him, very disdainfully.

"You oughtn't throw things at ladies," she said, and Teddy scoffed.

"I didn't throw it at you, and you're not-"

The paper had fallen apart when it'd hit the ground, and one of its pages caught Teddy's eye now. Spilling out from a back page, bold black letters proclaimed **: Missing children in slaughtered family still remain unfound.**

Teddy dove for the paper before Victoire could make a grab for it. Quickly, he separated the page from the rest of the paper and skimmed the article in the dim light under the stair well.

 _The mystery of the missing children in last week's attack on the Duberre family still remains unsolved. On July 26th, Aurors reported to the Duberre family farm in Eastern Wales, where the mutilated remains of Aaron Duberre and his wife Cynthia, as well as their youngest daughter Claudia, aged thirteen months, were found. "The house was a disaster," Auror Ruth McNeill reported. "There appeared to have been a terrible struggle. It looked like a slaughterhouse in there."_

 _Head Auror and hero of the First and Second Wizarding Wars, Harry Potter, was among the first to arrive at the scene. Though he refused to comment officially, he did remark that the site was "too grisly for the public eye" and was not above musing that the attack may have coincided with the cycle of the moon. Some speculation that Ernest Rotteger – general under notorious werewolf criminal Fenrir Greyback during the Second Wizarding War– may be behind the assault, though there has so far been no official word on the matter. "We're monitoring the situation very closely," Auror Ronald Weasley commented. "We've been tracking the wolves for some time now and we aren't going to let an act like this go without consequences."_

 _Missing from the family's farm were the Duberre's two oldest children, seven year old Clementine and five year old Wheeler. No official proclamation has been made, but Aurors are asking those in the Wales countryside to keep an eye out for the children. Head Auror Potter is quick to assure readers that as of now, the pack's activity is contained to beyond the Wales border, and he is confident that they will be able to establish contact with them soon._

Below the article, two smiling, freckle faced children slung their arms around each other and stuck out their tongues at the camera. They looked strikingly similar, with dark, narrow eyes and messy brown hair. Both were red cheeked and grinning. Teddy felt sick.

"This is what they were talking about, the night of the party," he said to himself, and Victoire frowned.

"What-"

"Are you coming?" Aunt Hermione ducked her head under the stairwell, startling Teddy. "Bill's looking for you, and Percy's just arrived."

Teddy reluctantly dropped the paper to the ground and followed Hermione and Victoire out of the cottage. On the veranda, he discarded his trainers and socks before going with them to the edge of the cliff, where a staircase – built by hundreds of slabs of speckled grey ocean slate and magicked into place by Bill himself- wound carefully down the cliff face. Below them, on the wide expanse of the sandy white beach, Teddy could see the children romping at the edges of the waves and various aunts and uncles setting up chairs and blankets. Uncle Ron was directing a long white tent into place, Hugo perched high on his shoulders.

The end of the summer picnic at Shell Cottage was always a strictly family affair, though that rule was often studiously ignored. Luna Lovegood – now Scamander, Teddy told himself – often showed up. Bill and Fleur, he'd been told, had a special interest in Luna, and in Dean Thomas, who sometimes also came. It was right here, in the cottage by the sea, that Bill and Fleur had nursed Garrick Ollivander back to health during the war, and where they'd held secret meetings, after Grimmauld Place had been compromised. It was here that his father had burst through the front door, shouting that he was a father; it was here where he'd asked Harry to be godfather. It was here too, where Dobby the Free Elf had died and been buried a hero. Shell Cottage, Teddy thought, was supposed to mean a lot of things to a lot of people.

"Come in the water, Teddy!"

Teddy blinked down. Six year old Molly Weasley grabbed at his hand and pulled. Her brown hair, tight and curly like her father's, was tied up on top of her head in a bun that looked altogether too big for the rest of her. She grinned at him, revealing two missing front teeth. "Come on!"

"Hold on, hold on." Teddy wrangled his hand free and slithered out of his jersey. He spotted the Potter's wicker beach basket on a nearby table, and he headed towards it. After a second of deliberation, he pulled his wand off of its perch behind his ear and offered it to Aunt Hermione, who was sitting nearby, cuddling a sleeping Lily on her chest. "Would you hold this for me?" He asked, and she smiled at him. Once upon a time, he'd been smitten with her. But that was a long time ago, when he was very little. Just the thought of having a crush on her – she was practically his aunt- sort of made him want to shudder now.

"Come on, Teddy!" Molly cried again, and Teddy smiled his thanks at Hermione and turned to Molly.

"All right, all right-"

"Blue!" Jamie came running up from the water's edge. He was panting and drenched, his teeth chattering. He grabbed Teddy's hand and swung it wildly. "Blue, Teddy!"

Teddy turned his hair and bent down to allow Jamie to scramble onto his back before following Molly to the sea's edge, where Percy's Muggle wife, Audrey, had started a rousing game of Marco-Polo in the sea foam.

As the morning dragged on, more family arrived. Nana Molly and Grandad arrived a little before eleven o'clock with a resounding _pop_! Teddy was shocked to see with them Andromeda, wrapped in a dark green shawl and bearing a basket of sandwiches. Teddy shook Louis off of his back and ran to her, shouting.

"You didn't say you were coming!"

Andromeda smiled warmly at him. Grandad conjured up a plush rocking chair behind her, and she sank into it with a small moan of delight. "Thank you, Arthur," she said, and he nodded as he conjured another for his wife, before ruffling Teddy's hair and setting off across the sand, where the tent had half-collapsed in the wind on top of Percy.

"I wouldn't miss this for the world," Andromeda told him. "You know how much I look forward to this picnic- and besides, I already missed Harry's party! It's only right of me to show up to at least one family event this summer!"

"Are you well enough to stay?" Teddy asked seriously, and she tutted.

"How you worry so! Enough of that, Teddy. Tell me- what did you name that glorious bird I saw you with in the Prophet this morning?"

With a jolt, Teddy remembered the article, and the slaughtered family, the house that was " _too grisly for public eyes_ ", the missing children, and the teenager in Madame Malkins who thought he was a werewolf, and just like that, his good cheer was gone.

"I haven't got a name for him yet," he told his grandmother glumly. "He's nameless."

He didn't want to have to answer anything else, so he wandered away to where Lily was tossing sleepily on a blanket in the shade of the cliff. Behind him, he heard Jamie's shouts of "Nana! Grams!" but he ignored them and stretched out on the blanket next to Lily. She was sleeping restlessly, her small pink lips puckered around her thumb and her pale blonde eyelashes fluttering on her cheeks. She had no freckles, not yet, but there was time for them to come in, Ginny had told him. Even now, at just seven months old, Lily looked remarkably like her mother: big blue eyes, bright red hair, and a complexion of porcelain. Teddy propped himself up on his elbow and used a fingertip to tease one of her curls, swaying gently in the ocean breeze.

Before long, he was interrupted by Aunt Hermione, who came to lay Hugo on the blanket next to Lily. "She sleeping all right?" She asked, and Teddy nodded. Hermione kneeled down beside him and with a happy sigh, clasped her hands in her lap and looked out over the ocean.

"It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" She said aloud, to no one in particular. Teddy didn't reply, and, after a moment, Hermione looked at him, softly but shrewdly. "Are you excited for Hogwarts?"

"Yes." Teddy hesitated. "I'm a little scared too, though."

"Oh, I expect you are. I was simply terrified when I had to go for the first time."

"You were?"

"Naturally. I'd no idea any of this even existed, you know, not until I was eleven years old." She smirked. "Of course, I couldn't let anyone know that I was scared. I was a little bit of a show off, then."

"Just then?" Teddy asked, and she laughed. She reached down and brushed a speck of sand from Hugo's downy red curls. Teddy rolled over onto his back and, squinting into the sunny blue sky, asked, "Did you know about the missing children in Wales?"

Aunt Hermione was silent a moment. "Yes."

"Uncle Harry lied to me about it. He said there was just some activity, nothing to worry about-"

"There isn't anything to worry about, Teddy," Aunt Hermione interrupted gently. "Do you really think that we would let anything happen to you, or anyone else here?"

Teddy closed his eyes. "Someone made that same promise to you too once, I bet," he said, and Aunt Hermione replied:

"They did, yes. But that was a different time. Try as he might, Ernest Rotteger is not Lord Voldemort. He never will be. Harry and Ron and Minister Shacklebolt are very good at their jobs. They will do whatever it takes to keep this danger from spreading."

"What if it's not enough?"

"Then I expect we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Teddy felt her hand, soft on his forehead. "You know, I think I've seen you in blue often enough that it almost looks entirely natural on you."

"My mother favored pink. It's pink in her wedding picture."

"She did. She was beautiful, wasn't she?"

For some reason, talking about his mother with Aunt Hermione was not hard. It was with Uncle Harry oftentimes, and with Aunt Ginny, who had been very fond of his mother, it was nearly impossible at times. But Hermione, despite her vigor and straightforward fierceness, was a gentler and more accepting soul than the others that Teddy knew. She had real horrors in her past, he knew: parents she had never been able to find, parents she had loved very much; and a scar, white against her summer dark skin, screamed a word that Teddy dreaded to even read.

"What do you think my father would think of what's happened?" He asked. He heard Hermione shift on the sand. One of the babies whimpered – Hugo, he thought – and she quieted him before answering.

"I think he would be very upset about how some of it is being handled," she said honestly. "Not by your godfather, or by Ron, but by some of the media. We all know the folks at _The Prophet_ are no more than fear mongers and vicious gossips. They want to strike fear into every one who reads their words, until the very thought of someone who is an alien to the norms of society induces terror."

"Harry says the wolves are dangerous."

"Rotteger's pack, certainly. Those that ran with Greyback during the war did terrible things, Teddy, awful things. But that is not to say that all of them are like that. We as people have a horrible habit of assigning blame to a whole based on the actions of some singular individuals."

"My father was the only good werewolf you knew, though."

"Your father's story was uncommon. Not every werewolf had been shown the sort of love he was. Not all of them had the same chances to prove themselves in the way that he did."

Teddy remained still on the blanket. He wondered, not for the first time, what it would have been like had his father lived. Would he have the same rosy picture of him that he did now? He supposed not. It was something like he and Uncle Harry, he supposed; everyone else in the world had such a glorious picture painted of the Boy Who Lived, but they didn't see him behind the scenes, when he was tired after work or arguing with Ginny or scolding one of his children. Uncle Harry was a very good man, Teddy thought, and a wonderful father and godfather and husband – but he was also an ordinary man, much more ordinary than everyone else seemed inclined to believe.

Beside him, Lily started to fuss. Teddy opened his eyes and sat up. She was waking, and with a short cry, reached her arms up to him. He carefully picked her and up and held her against her shoulder, the way Aunt Ginny had showed him. "Do you think I could take her to the water?" He asked, and Aunt Hermione nodded.

"But just sit with her," she cautioned. "If you need help, I'll be watching."

Teddy clambered to his feet and found a spot on the very edge of the water, where the sand was marked with a dark line from the rushing swells. He sat carefully and arranged Lily on the sand in between his legs, with her head against his stomach. The water came rushing towards them, but by the time it reached them, it was only high enough to cover their legs, and not very cold. Lily screamed with delight and slapped her hands against her thighs.

More popping sounds announced the arrival of others, and when Teddy turned his head to see who it was, he was delighted to see Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny. They'd both changed before they'd come, into their swimsuits and beach robes, and Jamie and Al went charging to their parents with a scream. Aunt Ginny waved at Teddy, then went to say hello to Nana Molly and Andromeda, while Harry, Al and Jamie dangling off his arms, made his way over to Teddy.

"All right, Captain?" He asked, and Teddy nodded. Harry knelt to kiss Lily, who pushed his face away with sandy hands, and he laughed. "Have you been in the water all morning?"

"Most of it." Teddy wanted to ask about the article in the Prophet, but he thought he should wait till the little boys were away. "Grams came."

"I saw." Uncle Harry stood again and took Jamie by one hand and Al by the other. "Are you coming out with us?" In the water, George (who had arrived some time ago), Ron, Bill, and Grandad had children piled atop their shoulders. Teddy shook his head.

"Lils and I are okay here," he said. Harry smiled again, then headed out into the water, stopping to lift Albus onto his shoulders while Jamie splashed water at them. Teddy sat back, being careful to keep his hands around Lily, and watched while they frolicked. Out in the water, Uncle Harry stood a head or shorter than each of his brother in laws. Teddy guessed that the Ravenclaw jerk had been right: he _was_ much taller in the papers.

After a while, Aunt Ginny joined them in the water, along with Angelina and Fleur and Percy. Audrey stayed on the beach with Lucy, who was crying; behind him, still underneath the cliff's shadow, Aunt Hermione had fallen asleep, curled up with Hugo.

Soon, it was lunchtime, and Nana called everyone over to the tent. Uncle Harry sent the boys ahead, then came over to relieve Teddy of Lily. "You know, you don't have to watch her. There's more than enough people here who will so you can play."

"I don't mind." He didn't. There was a special place in his heart, he thought, that was supposed to be filled only by giggling red-headed baby sisters. "Lils and I are having fun, aren't we?"

Lily, perched against Harry's bare chest, stuck out her tongue and shrieked. Teddy laughed and Harry jostled her up and down till she giggled. Then he cocked an eyebrow at Teddy. "What happened to the black? And where's your wand?"

"Aunt Hermione's holding it for me," he replied. "And Jamie wanted blue."

"You know, at some point, you're going to have to stop giving him everything he asks for."

"As if you're any better."

Harry laughed. They were nearing the tent, where everyone was crowding together along a long picnic table, and where he was very surprised to see Luna and her husband, Rolf, sitting in between Fleur and Arthur. Harry waved to her, then said to Teddy, "I rather fancied the black myself. But I know I'm nothing next to Jamie…"

"Oh, stop it," Teddy said, flushing.

He ate lunch squeezed in at his grandmother's side, with Charlie Weasley on the other. Charlie was very adamant that Teddy call his owl King. "King?" Teddy asked, and George shouted from down the table:

"King Weasley, after Ronnie!" Everyone laughed and Uncle Ron turned a bright flaming red and when lunch ended, Teddy was nowhere near closer to having a name for his owl than he had been that morning.

After lunch they played out in the water again, and this time everyone came, save Nana and Grams, who stayed under the tent with Hugo and Lily. Luna, who was so pregnant that she looked as though she were about to burst, was less active than the others, and in time even she grew tired and retired to the tent. All too soon, it seemed, the sun was sinking in the sky and the adults began collecting children and passing out towels and levitating furniture back up the length of the tall cliff. Up at Shell Cottage, Teddy knew, Beexie, the cottage's paid Elf, would have a delightful dinner laid out, and they would eat under the stars in the garden and then listen to the Weird Sisters on the wireless until the children had fallen asleep and would be ready to be Apparated home…

As he started up the stairs after Bill, Teddy was surprised when Dominque slipped to his side and placed her hand in his. "We won't see you till Christmas, now," she said sadly, and Victoire crowded in on his other side. "I wish you could be a squid," Dom went on, and ahead of them, Bill chuckled.

"It's a squib," Teddy told her. "And it's not that long of a time, I promise. You won't even notice I'm gone."

"I'll notice," Victoire said sadly. "It's all I'll notice."

Teddy was unsure what to say to that, so he just smiled and held out his other hand to her. She took it gratefully, and as they climbed the cliff stairs up into the red sky above them, Vic whispered in his ear:

"You ought to name your owl Absalon."

He glanced at her. "What?"

"Absalon," she said again. "It's what Aunt Gabby said we ought to name Louis."

"What's it mean?" Teddy asked dubiously, and Victoire grinned at him.

"My father is peace," she said. Teddy smiled softly and rolled the name around on his tongue.

"Absalon," he said. "It's perfect."

Victoire smirked. "It's better than Krum, at any rate," she said, and they both laughed.


	5. Chapter 5: The Hogwarts Express

_AN: I really can't say how much I love hearing from you all about this story! I'm so glad that you all are enjoying it so far! I hope you stick around for a bit longer ;)_

 _As always- favorite, comment, question away! Things are going to start to happen from here on out, and I look forward to seeing what all of you think!_

 **Chapter Five: The Hogwart's Express**

Teddy Lupin threw up the morning of September 1.

It didn't help that he'd hardly slept at all the night before. Andromeda had made sure he was in bed by ten, and his trunk was packed and waiting in the parlor, and all of his school books were wrapped away, and he had a lunch made for the train- and still, he couldn't sleep. Absalon had taken to sleeping perched on his footboard, but even his gentle hooting couldn't calm him. He tossed and turned till well after two o'clock, and when Grams came to rouse him a little after seven, he stumbled into the bathroom and vomited.

Breakfast was a silent affair. Teddy found that he could barely speak, let alone eat, and Grams, who was wheezing again, very slightly, spent much of it looking misty eyed.

"This is going to be quite a quiet house without you in it, Teddy Bear," she said softly, and Teddy wanted to scream at her to keep him home. As excited as he had been to start, for all of the wonderful stories he had heard- he was, quite frankly, terrified. Hogwarts was where his parents had lived and taught and died. It was where his godfather had lived and died and had done so many extraordinary things. Incredible things happened to you at Hogwarts, and he was such an ordinary boy that he doubted very much that he would have nearly as good of a time as Harry or his father had.

It was just a little past eight when the Potters pulled into the yard. They were all going together, in Uncle Harry's very rarely used Ford, and as soon as it came to a full stop in front of their steps, the backdoors slapped open and Al and Jamie spilled out, clamoring for Teddy. He endured their hugs and questions and demands as patiently as he could, turning his hair every which color and offering up a weak imitation of Uncle Ron. Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny went into the kitchen to talk with Grams, and after several minutes they all came out together, Uncle Harry hauling Teddy's school trunk with him. He stopped to wink at Teddy. "All set, Ted?" He asked, and Teddy nodded, but didn't speak.

The Potters had charmed their four door sedan to be bigger on the inside than it was on the out, so it was a comfortable trip. Teddy sat in the back, with Lily on one side and Al on the other and Absalon in his cage at his feet. Grams sat up front – which was expanded to be as long as a couch- with Aunt Ginny and Harry and after awhile, Teddy relaxed. Uncle Harry was fun to drive with, because he wasn't terrible at it, and Aunt Ginny spent most of the time regaling Teddy with all of the perks of her new job: she was going to work at the Prophet, as a Quidditch correspondant, and she was very excited for it. "It's the next best thing to playing!" She told Teddy.

"Mummy's goin' t'take us t'games," Al told Teddy, very seriously, and Ginny smiled at him.

"Maybe," she said. "I only said maybe, Al."

"That means no," Jamie quipped, and all of the adults laughed.

All too soon, it seemed, they were pulling into King's Cross station, and Teddy found himself fighting back another bout of nausea as they piled out of the car. Harry fetched a trolley, and he hauled Teddy's trunk atop it, then placed Absalon's cage on the top. "Ready?" He asked Teddy, very seriously, and Teddy nodded.

The trip through King's Cross was a quick one; it was a little before ten o'clock in the morning and the station was busy. Trains screamed and chugged and everywhere, people were rushing, their heads buried in their newspapers or impatiently looking at their wristwatches. Teddy, pushing his trolley, was relieved to spot several others doing the same. Some waved at him, and though he didn't know them, he waved back.

At Platform 9 ¾ they had to wait for another family to go through. They had three children and one, a girl with springy blond girls, looked every bit as nervous as Teddy felt. Uncle Harry offered a quick greeting to the father, a tall blond man with a fierce scar on his neck, then said to Teddy, "That's Delbie Peachtree. He works in the Departmemt- his daughter, Janice, is starting this year."

"Wonderful," Teddy said drily. When Uncle Harry offered him a confused look, he turned away, his cheeks burning.

Grams went through the border first, with Al clinging to one hand and Jamie the other, then Aunt Ginny with Lily, and finally it was just Uncle Harry and Teddy left.

"You know how to do it," Uncle Harry said gravely, but his eyes were sparkling. It lifted Teddy's spirits, just a little, and he offered his godfather a small grin before running towards the barrier as fast as he could without jostling Absalon too much. The brick wall loomed ominously closer, and for a minute, Teddy's heart leapt into his throat-

But then, he was through. He found himself facing a long concrete platform, swarming with children and teenagers and adults, all of them shouting and crying and rushing about. Above the crowds, the beautiful black and red steam engine of the Hogwarts Express stood proudly, chuffing smoke and whistling occasionally. Teddy, who had seen it several times before, nevertheless felt his mouth dry at the sight of it. This time, it was different, he thought hazily. This time, it was here for him.

Behind him, Uncle Harry stepped through the barrier, collected as always. He paused, and Teddy watched him survey the scene: the bustling crowd, the excited children, and the proud train. He wore a look on his face that Teddy saw him wear sometimes, when he was looking at the pictures of his and Ginny's wedding, or when he was with his friends, recounting days gone by. Then he shook himself and stepped up to Teddy, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Let's go," he said. "I see your grandmother over there..." he pointed, vaguely. "Crying, I suppose."

"She's been crying all morning," Teddy told him tiredly, and Harry smiled.

"Give her a break, Ted," he said. "It's going to be different for her, with that big old house, all to herself. The people you love take up a lot of space, sometimes, and we don't even realize it till they're gone."

Teddy bit his lip. "She'll be all right, won't she?"

"I expect so."

"You'll – you'll look in on her, won't you?"

Uncle Harry looked warmly at him. "Every week," he confirmed. "I promise."

They made their way over to where Aunt Ginny and Andromeda were standing with the children. Already, several people were looking their way, and Teddy felt the heat begin to rise to his cheeks. Uncle Harry, however, ignored them. He handed Absalon off to Teddy and steered the trolley towards the Hogwarts Express. "I'll just get this to a porter," he told his family, and Jamie pulled free of Gram's hand and went dashing after his father.

It seemed only a few seconds until Uncle Harry was back, carrying Jamie. Someone called his name, but he ignored them and instead reached out to muss Teddy's hair. Jamie copied his father, and Teddy laughed and ducked.

"It's about time," Aunt Ginny said, and Teddy asked:

"They won't lose my trunk?" He knew they wouldn't, but all the same, he thought he should ask, just in case. Aunt Ginny chuckled.

"Of course they won't," she said. "Magic, you see. Makes for keeping track of things especially easy."

Teddy smiled, but then the train whistle blew, long and clear, and the crowd on the platform shifted rather suddenly, so everyone was pressing towards the doors on the trains. Teddy felt his stomach drop.

"I guess it's time," Uncle Harry said, and he and Aunt Ginny stepped back to allow Teddy and Andromeda some room. Andromeda was crying again, and she wrapped Teddy in a hug that was so tight, he was sure he felt a rib crack.

When she finally released him, she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him on the forehead. "I know you're much too old for shows of affection like this," she said seriously, in a watery voice, "But allow me this once, all right?"

"It's all right, Grams." Teddy hugged her back, just as fiercely, and kissed her cheek. His eyes were burning. "I'll miss you."

"You write, you hear me?" She held him at arm's length and sniffled. "It doesn't have to be every week – I expect you'll be much too busy having fun to do that, but I had better hear from you regularly, Teddy Lupin, or I will be put out with you. Don't you go forgetting me, you hear?"

"Never," Teddy promised, and Grams smiled again, softer.

"How much like your mother you are," she said quietly. "Teddy, you have been a joy to me. I hope you know that."

Teddy blinked against the tears in his eyes. There was a strange lump in his throat, so all he could do was nod, and then Aunt Ginny was there, Lily in her arms. She pulled him into a warm hug, and kissed the top of his head, and when she pulled away, Teddy was surprised to see that she was crying too.

"Aunt Ginny," he began, and she hushed him.

"You know," she said, "I've always known this day would come. I guess I just didn't expect it to come so soon." She kissed him again and offered him Lily. He took her and hugged her as tightly as she would allow, and took a moment to stroke the back of her head, where her curls were the softest.

"I expect next time I'll see her she'll be walking," he said. The thought nearly choked him. "I'm going to miss her birthday."

"I'm sure we can arrange for you to take an afternoon off," Aunt Ginny said wryly. She took Lily back, after prompting her to kiss him, which she did with a giggle, and Teddy knelt down so he could hug both Al and Jamie at once, who were crying heartily.

"I'll be back," He told them, trying to sound consoling, but Jamie just shook his head and buried his face in the front of Teddy's jumper, and Al said, through his tears:

"Daddy can't have blue, Teddy."

"Is that all you'll miss me for, my hair?" Teddy demanded playfully, and Al shook his head, sniffling. "I'll write you both, all right?"

"Will you draw me a picture?" Jamie asked, hiccupping, and Teddy said that he would, even though he thought it an odd request. He had never drawn a picture for Jamie before in his life.

"I'll draw you Hogwarts," he promised, and Jamie prompted:

"And Abby."

"And Absalon, yes."

"And the ghosts!" Al shouted. "Teddy, the ghosts!"

"The ghosts too, Al."

Eventually, after many kisses and hugs and promises to draw more ridiculous things, Grams and Aunt Ginny managed to pry the boys away from Teddy, and Uncle Harry walked Teddy to the train. He looked, Teddy thought, as if he were about to cry.

"Are you going to cry too?" He asked, wrinkling his nose, and Uncle Harry blinked at him.

"I might," he said stoutly. "You'll understand one day, Teddy, just how much today means." He paused, then said in a thick voice: "I expect you're rather tired of hearing about the War, but there was once, not long ago, when I thought that we would never be able to have this- not just Hogwarts, but everything we do."

"I know," Teddy said softly.

"I can't begin to say how very grateful I am that I've been able to share this with you, Teddy," Harry said quietly. He stepped closer. "Not just today, but everything. I know you think sometimes that you don't belong, or that you're a burden, but you should know that you are neither of those things. I'm very, very happy that I've had you as long as I have. I'm very proud of you, you know."

"I haven't done anything to be proud of," Teddy told him dismally, and Harry shook his head, fiercely.

"You've done a million things, Teddy. And even if you don't see it, I do." He stepped forward and wrapped Teddy in a hug that was tighter somehow, and warmer, than all of the other ones he'd received today. He felt Harry kiss the top of his head. "I'll miss you, you know," Harry said into his hair. "More than you can know. It's never the same when you're not around."

"I know," Teddy said into Harry's chest, and Harry released him. There were tears standing in his godfather's eyes; he took off his glasses, very unashamedly, and wiped at them.

"I want you to know that I'll always be here for you," he said gravely. "You can write to me, or use a Floo, or whatever else you can manage. If you need me, really need me, I can be there in a heartbeat. You mean so much to me, Teddy." He didn't wait for Teddy to reply, but took out of the pocket of his jacket an envelope, and pressed it into Teddy's hand. "This is for you, but I want you to promise me you won't open it till after the train leaves the station. Can you do that?"

"I promise." The envelope was light; Teddy slipped it into the top of his rucksack. Uncle Harry smiled at him.

"I can't believe that we're here already," he said. "I'm very excited for you- and I know you're excited too, but sometimes…sometimes I think you could have stayed a little boy forever, and I would have been all right with that."

The train whistle blew, and Teddy jumped. Uncle Harry took him by the back of his neck and drew him in for one more hug, then kissed his forehead, rather hard.

"I apologize for all the kissing," he said, wryly, "But I'm sure you'll find it in your heart to forgive me, won't you?"

Teddy couldn't speak. There was a chunk the size of a Filibuster in his throat; he rushed forward and hugged his godfather, as tight as he could, blinking against a slew of tears.

"Thank you, Uncle Harry," he said, and it sounded stupid and weak, even to his own ears. Uncle Harry drew him gently back, and shook his head, a small smile on his lips.

"There's nothing to thank me for," he said. "It's been my pleasure, Teddy, all along."

Then the train whistle blew again, and Uncle Harry helped him into his rucksack and handed him Absalon. "Good luck, Captain," he said, seriously. "Write me, you hear?"

"I will." Teddy put one foot on the step into the train, and he paused. "I love you, Uncle Harry," he said, and Uncle Harry stepped back from the train, nodding.

"I love you too. Be good!"

"I will."

"But not too good." He winked. "Have fun, Teddy."

Then he was stepping backwards, blending into the crowd, and Teddy was inside of the train, the door slamming magically shut in his face; underneath his feet, the floorboards were shaking and lurching, and overhead, the steam whistle was screaming. Students were pressing on him as they hurried by, in clusters or pairs, and he stood dumbly for a minute, watching the crowds slip away out the window and King's Cross disappear-

"Hey." Someone tapped his shoulder. Turning, he found himself confronted with a tall, hawkish looking boy in the robes of a Hufflepuff. He had a prefect's badge on his chest. "You need to find a compartment."

"Okay."

"And you know your hair's blue?"

Teddy felt a spike of irritation. "Well, obviously," he said, and turned and started down the corridor, lugging Absalon, hooting, behind him.

Each of the compartments that he passed were full, so he went on into the next car, and then the next. Near the end he finally found what he thought was an empty one, but as soon as he stepped inside, he realized that it was occupied by a single girl. She was very pale, and had dark blue eyes and long, straight black hair. Freckles scattered across her nose, and when he opened the compartment and stepped in, she looked at him with a look that could have burned him.

"Err," he said. "Sorry, I-" he faltered, then took a deep breath. "Everywhere else is full. Can I-"

"I'm waiting for my family," she said curtly. She had a soft, high lilt to her voice. It took Teddy a minute to place it as Irish.

"So you'll have to leave," she said. Teddy blinked. "There's quite a few of us and we won't have any room for stranglers."

"I'm not a strangler," Teddy retorted. She arched an eyebrow at him.

"You are if you haven't got a compartment," she said, and Teddy gave a frustrated sigh and left, making sure to close the door as hard as he could. Every compartment he passed was full of students all laughing and playing together; outside, the city of London tore by at a ferocious blur.

A trio of approaching girls stopped before him. They couldn't have been more than a few years older than him; still, just the sight of them watching him set his heart racing.

"You know your hair's blue," one of them said, and another, a red head with a stone glinting in her nose, added on:

"I love it."

"Thanks," Teddy muttered, and waited till they were gone before changing his hair back to his natural reddish-brown. He waited for the rest of his face to settle – he never knew for sure, sometimes, what exactly he looked like- then continued on. Absalon had moved on from hooting to squawking indignantly at all of the jostling, and Teddy's shoulder was beginning to ache. Finally, after he had passed through what felt like a dozen more cars, he found a compartment with no one in it. It was rather smaller than the other ones had been, and the door screeched terribly when he opened it, but there was no one in it, so Teddy gratefully placed Absalon's cage on one seat and collapsed on the other.

This was not how he had hoped for his first trip to Hogwarts would proceed. Alone, in a cramped rear compartment with no one but his owl was not what Teddy had had in mind. None of the other's stories went quite like this.

He found that he was fighting back tears, rather pathetically. He thought of his grandmother, on her way back to her lonely house in the Potter's Ford, and was immediately rewarded for the thought with an actual small sob. She was going to be awfully lonely, and he felt guilty leaving her. He wasn't sure at all that he was even going to like school; perhaps, he could go back home, and Uncle Harry could teach him what he needed to know-

With a start, Teddy remembered the envelope that Uncle Harry had passed him at the station. He sat up and dug around in his rucksack until he found it. On the front, Uncle Harry had scrawled in his familiar, square handwriting: Teddy Remus Lupin.

Teddy rolled his eyes and slit the top of it. Inside was a piece of paper folded over; when he pulled it out and unfolded it, two purple backed cards fell out and fluttered to the seat beside him. Teddy reached them, and froze.

They were his mum and dad's Chocolate Frog Cards.

Side by side, the pictures of his parents glanced at each other and gave what looked like a shout of joy. There was no noise, but his mother's hair flashed from lavender to red to bright bubblegum pink, and the corners of his father's blue eyes were crinkling as he smiled. They both seemed to notice that they had company at the same time, for they both faced forward, doing their best to look serious, but his mother's mouth kept twitching upwards, and his father wouldn't stop glancing sideways at her.

"It's all right," Teddy whispered to them, "It's just me." Absalon hooted, and he thought suddenly how stupid he must look, sitting alone in a drafty compartment talking to two cards who had no idea who it was that was even holding them. Very gently, he laid the cards down and turned to the paper they had fallen out of. It was a note, as Teddy had suspected, from Uncle Harry.

Teddy,

Remember all those days we spent when you were little, stuffing ourselves silly with Chocolate Frogs in hope of finding your parents' cards? Well, apparently all we had to do was ask Bill. He found these, and gave them to me to give to you. It was nearly a year ago, and I hope you'll forgive me for waiting so long, but I thought that you should get them really when you needed them most of all, and I think that that day is today.

I never really longed, as a student, to have my parents there to see me off on the Hogwarts Express. I longed for them many other times I was growing up, and now that I'm grown, I find I wish for them more than I ever did. I know you wish for yours, and I have wished, so many times, for them as well. Especially today. They would have loved to see you off, and I am, and have always been, and will always be, heartbroken that you don't have them today, Teddy. I know that these cards are a poor substitute for the real thing, but it was the only way I could think of that would come close to having them there with you. They loved you so much, you know- more perhaps than I love you, or your grandmother loves you, or more than even Jamie loves you, and you know how much that is!

Teddy, take care to remember them whenever you can- not just who they were or what they did or how they died, but how much you meant to them. You were their whole world, so much so that they went to great lengths to make sure that your world would be a happy one. I don't know how close we've come to the mark on that one, sometimes, but I think we're closer than we are farther, and I'll count that as a win.

Keep these cards close, Teddy. I know that they'll be able to provide some comfort to you, now that I won't be there to do it. Take care of yourself, Captain, and remember that no matter what, you are so loved.

Love, Uncle Harry

The letter blurred at the end, and Teddy allowed it to. He lay on his back on the seat and watched the sky flash by outside the window above his head, and laid his parents' cards close to head, and he let the tears come.

xxxx

Teddy was interrupted mid-morning by the trolley lady, but he wasn't feeling particularly in the mood for snacks. He had let Absalon out of his cage and he lay on his back on the seat and watched the owl flit irritably around the small compartment. Above his head, the green English countryside was rolling by at a smooth clip, all long fields and small villages and broad blue-grey lakes. He kept his parent's cards in his hands all morning; they spent it talking animatedly to each other, though he could not hear a word. He tried to imagine the things they were talking about: Quidditch, perhaps; or a friend or a story one of them had heard or something funny his mother had seen at work. Him, perhaps. Maybe they talked all morning of him, and not once did they realize who was looking on.

His throat burned at the thought. He was glad he had the cards, but in another way, he wished Harry hadn't given them to him. It wasn't the same thing as having them there at all. Beggars can't be choosers, he thought angrily, and was just about to stuff the cards back into his rucksack when the door to his compartment shuddered open. Teddy looked up in surprise at the boy that stood there. He was very tall, much taller than Teddy was, and very skinny. His wrists dangled sharply out of the cuffs of his blue jumper, and the messenger bag he had gripped in one freckled hand had a strap that'd been sewn back together. He had dark blue eyes and a shock of golden blond hair that stood up off his forehead. He was very pale and had more freckles than even a Weasley.

"Hello," he said, in a tight voice. "I- um, is it all right if I stay?"

Teddy blinked at him. "Have you been looking for a compartment this whole time?" he asked incredously, and the boy shook his head.

"No. I was with my older brother but he- he kicked me out. When his girlfriend arrived. You know." He offered a small grimace, and Teddy, who had absolutely no experience with older brothers, just younger sort-of ones, cleared his throat awkwardly.

"I'm all alone," he said. "So- you can stay, I suppose."

Relief blossomed across the boy's face. "Thanks." He stepped through the door, slid it shut behind him, and seated himself on the seat across from Teddy, gingerly avoiding the owl's cage. As an afterthought, Teddy remembered his manners and moved it to the floor. Absalon hooted his displeasure from the luggage rack above Teddy's head.

The boy glanced nervously at Absalon, then at Teddy. "Thanks," he said again, unnecessarily. He clutched his bag to him in a fierce grip. "I'm Ackerly. Ackerly Brewster."

"Teddy Lupin," Teddy answered immediately, then wished he hadn't. Ackerly squinted, just enough that Teddy knew he'd heard the name before, and Teddy rushed on, before he could say anything, "How old's your brother, then?"

"He's a fourth year. Ravenclaw. He's a real jerk." His lips tightened into a small smile. "Brothers are the worst."

Just last week, Jamie had ripped Teddy's Appleby Arrow's poster right down the middle. "Sometimes," he answered, mildly.

"Have you got brothers?" Ackerly asked, and Teddy shrugged.

"Two." The Potter boys, he told himself fiercely, were his brothers, as much as godbrothers could be. He wasn't even sure that Al didn't know that they weren't actually siblings. He was only three, after all. "Younger though. I'm the first to go to school."

"Lucky you. My two older brothers are here already, and my sister. It's a right pain, being the last."

Teddy wasn't sure what to say to that. "Being the oldest isn't so easy, either," he said. It was true. Being the head of a gaggle of sixteen children was a lot to bear, he thought dismally. "They always expect you to look after the littler ones, and to set a good example, and all of that." Just last week, Jamie had ripped his poster- but he'd gotten scolded for swearing when he saw it.

Ackerly was studying him again with that same look he'd had before. Then, almost too casually, he said, "Lovely bird. Did you get him from Eyelops?"

Teddy remembered the stupid article from the day of the picnic on the beach, and he felt his face go red. "If you've something else you really want to ask, just go ahead and ask it," he said loudly. "It's not as if it's something I've never been asked before."

Ackerly looked immediately chagrined. "Sorry," he said. "I just- I didn't want to jump to conclusions."

"Everybody else does." But Teddy felt the heat leaving the room as he spoke. Ackerly looked pointedly away, out the window, and Teddy, after a long moment, said, "My godfather got him for me. His name's Absalon."

"Funny name."

"It's French." My father is peace, Teddy told himself, and felt a small smile tug at his lips. "I didn't mean to snap," he added, quietly. "I expect you're not the last person I'll have to boil over at today."

Ackerly looked at him aslant, but he wasn't nearly as red as before. "I saw you in the Prophet," he said. "Well- loads of times, actually. That's not why I came in here, though. I didn't recognize you at all at first." He hesitated, then turned all the way around to face Teddy. "Do you live with him?"

Teddy shrugged. "Sometimes."

"My mother met him once, shopping in Diagon Alley," Ackerly said. "Years ago, when I was a baby. She said he was very polite but very young."

"He's only just turned twenty- nine," Teddy pointed out. "He isn't ancient or anything."

"He seems much older," Ackerly amended. "In the papers."

"You can't trust everything you read in the papers," Teddy said, but he was frowning. Ackerly was looking nervously at him again.

"I expect you get tired of asking how it is, being related to a hero and all," he said, and Teddy sighed.

"I'm not related at all-"

"You're his godson, aren't you?" Teddy nodded. "And you just said you live with him sometimes, and I'm going to guess that you're little brothers are actually his sons, which means you can't possibly be as far removed from him as you're pretending."

Teddy nearly laughed, but only nearly. "I suppose you're out for Ravenclaw, aren't you?"

Ackerly grinned slyly. "Perhaps." Then he leaned forward, his face earnest. "Honestly, though, Teddy, is he really that glamorous at home?"

Teddy didn't think Harry was glamorous in the slightest. Even in the papers, he always looked a little too solemn, a little too reserved to be really stunning. Teddy thought of him at home, reading them stories in the living room and drinking coffee in the kitchen in his pajama bottoms and hanging laundry in the garden. He pulled a face. "He isn't glamorous at all. Ever."

"Well, naturally, you don't think so." Ackerly leaned back, but he seemed abated somewhat. "Is he nice, at least? He's done a lot of really wild things, you know."

"Of course I know," Teddy scoffed. "And yeah, he's all right."

"All right?"

Teddy shrugged one shoulder. "I mean – he's really just very ordinary. He doesn't go around blasting dark wizards out of the corners of the basement or talking about all of his adventures all the time or anything. He hardly ever talks about work, actually." He frowned. "To me, anyways."

Ackerly nodded sagely. Then he unclasped his messenger bag and removed a brown paper bag from it. "Fair enough," he said, unrolling the top of the bag. "Treacle tart? I stole them from my brother."

Teddy grinned and held out his hand. Ackerly dropped one in and went on: "His name's Rodrick, and he thinks he's all set to be a Prefect, except his grades are perfectly terrible and he's a sot, anyways. My oldest brother Brantham is in his last year here, and Mum says she's absolutely sure they might have gotten a better deal out of it if they'd just flushed their gold down the loo rather than send him to school." Teddy grinned a little, and Ackerly grinned back. "My sister Lola's the only good one of us, I expect. She's a year ahead of us, and incredibly smart. It's almost embarrassing."

"What houses are they all in?" Teddy asked, and Ackerly said through a mouthful of tart:

"Ravenclaw, the lot of them. Both our parents were too. I expect that's where I'll end up." He swallowed and coughed. "What about you?"

Teddy set about licking the sugar from his fingertips. "I dunno," he said honestly. "My mum was in Hufflepuff, and my Dad was in Gryffindor, but the rest of my family was always in Slytherin. And well, Harry and Ginny and all of them were all Gryffindors, so I don't really know."

"Your godfather was the best Seeker Gryffindor'd ever seen, my uncle said," Ackerly informed him. "He was in his last year when your godfather was in his first."

Teddy shrugged, his mouth full. Ackerly offered him the bag again and went on: "Does he still play, at all?"

"Whenever he can," Teddy answered. "He and Aunt Ginny try to, all the time. I'm not nearly as good as either of them, though."

"I bet he could have played professionally," Ackerly said, and Teddy sniffed.

"He could still play professionally, if he wanted," he corrected him. "He hasn't lost any of his touch at all."

"Will you be wanting to play?"

Teddy frowned. He fancied himself a rather accomplished flier, as far as those his age were concerned, but the game of Quidditch troubled him to no end. He was too much like his mother that way, he supposed: very little coordination and heaps of energy, Harry had wryly told him once. He was too much like his mother, he thought sometimes, and not nearly like his father enough.

"I don't know," he told Ackerly honestly. "I'm not nearly as good as Uncle Harry was when he was my age, and I've been playing for years."

Ackerly nodded sagely, swallowing. "I suppose it might help your chances though, having come from their teaching."

"I suppose." Above his head, Absalon hooted loudly, angrily. The door to the compartment was screeching open again, the old trolley witch calling through to them: "Dreadful noise, this one makes – anything from the trolley?"

It was nearly one o'clock and Teddy wasn't feeling quite as ill as he had been that morning. He looked to Ackerly, who was rustling through his pockets for loose change, and decided to get something for himself. Grams had stuffed away a little money for him, for this very reason. He made his purchase and waited while Ackerly made his. In the corridor behind the trolley a line was forming of students, some robed and some not, all jostling each other and laughing to get to the trolley. None of them offered Teddy anything other than curious but polite expressions. Teddy slid the door shut all the same as soon as he was able, and the witch moved on, the line of students following her. Several children glanced into the compartment as they passed, but Teddy just turned his head and bit down hard on the squirming chocolate frog in his fingers.

"I reckon they've spotted you," Ackerly said, and Teddy shrugged.

"Let them." He held out the card he'd clenched in his other hand. "I've got Francis Elemere. Who've you got?"

Ackerly grinned at him. "The Boy Who Lived. Care to trade?"

Teddy laughed.


End file.
